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THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 
FOR THE NEW DAY 





~The Master’s Message: 
for the New Day 






RY OF PRIND SS. 
Ce ary, 
SEP 13 1994 
pe “ 
— NEGLogieay sew 
BY ee 
VINCENT GODFREY BURNS 


ASSOCIATION PRESS 
New Yorr: 847 Mapison AVENUE 
1926 











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To 
Tue BLesseED MEMoRY 
of my father, 
JAMES Howarp Burns, 


who showed in his own life 
a noble expression of the 
religion of Jesus Christ. 





PREFACE 


On a quiet evening in June, 1925, I walked the shores of 


beautiful Silver Bay with a friend. We talked of our hopes, 
our lives, the miracle of existence, the needs of the world, 


the blessings of friendship. In the love and sympathy of that. 
friend I saw Jesus. This young prophet of God’s kingdom, 
opening up dazzling visions to his friends, suggested very 


much the Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount. “If only all 


-men and women,” thought I, “had in them the good-will, the 


beauty, the peace of this friend, our problems would vanish!’” 


Here was a life that was done with lip service! Here was. 


a man with courage enough to live the religion we all have 
been talking about! 
While my friend shows the world what God does through. 


a truly loyal child, I hope this book may bear a few thoughts 
of helpfulness in the spirit of this great friend. Life is glad. 
and good; but fear and selfishness ruin it. The shackles of 
- fear and self can be thrown aside only as we go out to answer 
_ the call of the ‘Master. Some think he never lived; some say 


the recorded words are untrustworthy; some are sure his 


_ teaching is impractical. In the New Testament we know we 
find a real Life; in the Sermon on the Mount we are sure we 
have his best words; in the life of this wonderful friend one 


surely sees the proof of religion’s power. | 
The church, the mission field, the younger generation, the 


_ schools, the crowded cities, the changing industrial life—the 
_whole creation cries out for real light and help. We are all 


the Mount? 


sick of confusion and controversy. The world wants a real 


message; the world wants to see actual personalities who have 
lived beliefs and proved them good! If we want to hear and 
see the real Jesus where else shall we go but to the Sermon or 


“VEL 


PREFACE 


To Henry Van Dusen, who guided the group leaders at 
Silver Bay, during the 1925 College Conference of the YM CA, 
in a rare week of Bible exploration, my thanks are due. To 
my prayer circle at the South Congregational Church, and to 
my Bible groups at the Pittsfield Y M C A, both of which 
shared in the discussions which form the background of this 
work, my cordial appreciation is extended. Lastly, to Dr. . 
H. E. Fosdick, who has guided my ministry continually, my 
debt is unpayable in various ways. Many varieties of litera- 
ture, poetry, and experience have entered into the warp and 
woof of my thought, and for all these helps I express my 
sincere gratitude. Space limitations have restricted — this 
volume to the first half of the Sermon on the Mount. It is 
hoped that another volume will be forthcoming to complete 
the study. 

All the scripture selections for the daily readings are taken 
from either the words of the Master or bits of his biography - 
as given in the four gospels. To some the old King James 
version may be out of date but it is used here because its 
words are like old flowers full of forgotten fragrance, or old 
friends who in life’s journey wear best. 

The prayer with which this book goes out is that others 
may catch here something of the passion for truth, something 
of the spiritual vigor, something of that fresh, daring, and — 
fearless joy which the world sees in my friend, and which the 
multitude must have seen in Jesus that memorable day on the 
Palestinian Mount. 

VINCENT GopFREY Burns. 
Pittsfield, Mass., 
Nov. I, 1926. 


Vill 


CONTENTS 


RERA CE er aut eee SUR! Ps oes 
CHAPTER 


]. THe TEMPLE ON THE Hitt-Torp . . . eee 

II. Secrets or HAPPINESS IN THE New Day. . 
III. WuHoLesoMe LiviING IN THE New Day. . . 
IV. ApvENTURING WITH Gop IN THE NEw Day . . 
‘VV... BROTHERHOOD IN THE NEw Day. ..°. ~~. 
Netter meiNEW- (VL ARRIAGE)S .* ts-o2. SL kee 
al epeeder ieee NEW. LIONESTY 245 uc feo oh ee a Signs 
VIII. CongurEst or Evi. IN tHE New Day... . 


fom oven THE ONEW DAY) foo se ke a 


CoNCERNING THE SOURCES OF THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 


120 
149 
192 
214 


245 


’ 


é 





CHAPTER I 


The Temple on the Hill-top 


DAILY READINGS 


The Sermon on the Mount, as we find it recorded in the 
gospel of Matthew, probably enshrines the earliest and most 
authentic record of a discourse delivered by the Master. A 
second-century historian, Eusebius by name (quoting another 
man, Papias), has told us that it was well known that the 
disciple Matthew had written down in Aramaic (the very 
language Jesus spoke) some of the speeches of Jesus, and had 
assembled them in a little papyrus volume, called “The 
Logia.” When we combine this extraordinary news with the 
significant fact that’ Matthew was the only member of the 
Master’s intimate circle who could write (he was keeping his 
books at the seat of custom when Jesus called him), we come 
to the fascinating and almost certain conclusion that portions 
of Matthew’s gospel (and especially the Sermon on the 
Mount) contain Jesus’ message, recorded for us by an eye- 
witness almost word for word! For the gospel of Matthew, 
as we have it, is an expanded edition of the original Logia, or 
‘Teachings, actually written down by a member of the dis- 
ciples’ band! May it not be due to this fact that Renan, the 
great French scholar, should have called the gospel of Mat- 
thew “the most important book in Christendom’? 

It is, therefore, with renewed assurance that. we can come 
to a study of the message of the Master as we find it in the 
Sermon on the Mount. We can look between the lines of this 
sermon and feel sure that we are seeing an authentic and 
genuine reflection of the greatest personality of the ages. We 
£an listen to the accents which we hear in these words, feeling 

rx 


[I-r] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


sure that this is the actual, enchanting voice of the noblest 
teacher humanity has known. “In one sentence of his words,” 
‘says Albert Schweitzer, “the glow of his life is held.” 

But we shall find more than a man and his message. We 
shall come face to face with the most flaming and revolution- 
ary teaching ever pronounced. If we are in dead earnest about 
life, we shall be able to look Jesus right in the eyes here and 
know what he really means! If we are honest with ourselves 
we shall see clearly here the tremendous consequences which 
would follow a fair application of this message to the society 
of our times! This Sermon on the Mount is nothing else but 
religion's dynamite for the reconstruction of the old social 
order into the brighter and happier new day! Lord Morley 
saw the dynamic in the Sermon on the Mount when he said: 


“There are more secret elements of social volcano slumbering - 


in it than in any other pronouncement ever recorded!” If 
some folk really knew what lies deep under the surface of 


this sermon, it would be prohibited from fashionable pulpits, - 


it would be put on the Index, it would be burned as Red and 


Radical literature, and certainly most men would not say of 


it what Henry Ward Beecher said: “. . . acclaimed by uni- 
versal consent the greatest truths and the noblest utterances 
of earth.” 

In order that we shall fully understand the message of the 
sermon, we shall trace in the daily readings of this chapter 
the main events which led Jesus to the preaching of this great 
manifesto. As we see the sermon in its place in Jesus’ min- 
istry, we shall notice how natural and appropriate and in- 
evitable were the words of the sermon. 


First Week, First Day 


And when they had performed all things according to the 


law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their cwn 


city Nazareth. And the child grew, and waxed strong in 
spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon 
him.—Luke 2:39-40. 


One of the amazing things about the gospels as we find them 
is the almost complete silence concerning the early years of 
Jesus’ life. For the first thirty years of his life, the veil 

oP 


7 


THE TEMPLE ON THE HILL-TOP [1-1] 


is lifted only once or twice. Even then we are not sure that 
we have seen truly. How easy it would have been for the 
writers and editors of the gospels to fabricate a few interest- 
ing facts about the Master’s early life! Perhaps there is no 
stronger point than this to. recommend the honesty and fidelity 
of the recorders. Here and there the historians of Jesus’ life 
included a few stories of the birth and the early days, but a 
devout modesty restrained them from statements of fact not 
well authenticated! . 

We can, however, be tolerably sure about certain general 
facts with regard to the youth of Jesus. -After the birth in 
Bethlehem, which took place about 5 B.c., the father and 
mother and baby boy sojourned for a short period in Egypt 
(almost certainly a historical event), and then returned to the 
home in Nazareth. We can imagine the developing baby find- 
ing his world, as all babies do, in his mother’s arms, in the 
cradle where he was rocked, and in the arms of friends who 
carried him to and fro in the little village to show him off 
to all the interested mothers of the town. Francis Thompson 
has a very revealing little verse which makes Jesus a real baby 
for us: 


“Didst thou kneel at night to pray, 

And didst thou join thy hands, this way? 
And did they tire sometimes, being young, 
And make the prayers seem very long? 
And did thy mother at the night 

Kiss thee, and fold the clothes in right? 
And didst thou feel quite good in bed, 
Kissed, and sweet, and thy prayers said?” 


Surely, when he was grown, he took his bar-mitzvah as 
every loyal Jewish child would, and probably entered the little 
bare school room at the synagogue where at the feet of the 
rabbi he learned to read the holy writings of his forefathers. 
In the woodcraft shop, in the market place, at the village well, 
at the knee of a loving mother, in the presence of the stern 
village fathers, he must have heard of life with its problems, 
its perplexities, its joys, its sorrows. Among the quiet hills 
of the Galilean countryside, on many a knoll, and in many a 
vale, he must have brooded, as boys do, upon the meaning of 


3 


=> = - ia — ne > . ae Sa “ee 


[I-2] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


\ 


things. The caravans that moved along the coastal plain, the 
sails that gleamed on the bright sea a few miles away, the 
companies of soldiers that passed through the little town, the 
toll gatherers and merchants who occasionally made their un- 
welcome visits to the village, these must have excited the deep 
wonder of the boy’s heart, must have awakened a keen interest 
in the wide and mysterious world which lay beyond the bor- 
ders of his own little province. Thus he grew robust of body, 
keen of mind, tender of heart, and deep of spirit. The boy 
was promising the man! Tabb’s lines may well reflect a true 
picture of Jesus at this time: 


“Once, measuring his height, he stood 
Beneath a cypress tree, 
And, leaning back against the wood, 
Stretched wide his arms for me; 
Whereat a brooding mother-dove 
Fled fluttering from her nest above. 


“At evening he loved to walk 

Among the shadowy hills and talk 

Of Bethlehem; 

But if perchance there passed us by 
The paschal lambs, he’d look at them 
In silence, long and tenderly ; 

And when again he'd try to speak, 
I’ve seen the tears upon his cheek!” 


First Week, Second Day 


Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, 
that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was 
opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape 
like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which 
said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. 
And Jesus began to be about thirty years of age.—Luke 
3221-23. 

And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from 
Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.— 
Luke 4:1. 


When Jesus came down to John at the Jordan for baptism, 
he was just thirty years of age, as Luke tells us. For eighteen 


4 


— 


THE TEMPELE-ON-THE HILE-T OP [I-2] 


years, from the time we see him in the temple until he stands 
before John, we have neither seen nor heard of him. But we 
may rest assured that they were years filled with the finest 
preparations for a great mission ever man made: creative 
labor in the carpenter shop, earnest study of the holy book 
of his native religion, daily profound meditation and prayer, 
a noble and filial and perfect obedience to his heavenly Father. 
How straight and strong and beautiful he must have looked! 


“Erect in youthful grace and radiant 
With spirit forces, all imparadised 
In a divine compassion, down the slant 
_ Of these remembering hills He came, the Christ,” 


sings Katherine Bates, and it is true description. For John 
himself, rugged old prophet as he is, stands in awe before 
this divine expression of perfect manhood: “I have need to 
be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?” 

The scene of Jesus’ baptism was probably Bethany beyond 
Jordan, now Bethabara. The sacred rite, which was accom- 
panied by a vision that sealed in his consciousness the convic- 
tion that God had for him some unusual and unexampled 
mission, probably took place on the eastern bank of the river, 
about five miles north of its emptying into the Dead Sea. The 
scene of the solitary retirement is almost certainly the wilder- 
ness west of the Dead Sea and southeast of the city of Jerusa- 
lem. Here Jesus stayed for a short period (the exact time is 
unknown) struggling with the great issues of his day, and 
settling in his mind the general method of his ministry. The 
prophets before him had set this precedent of the desert 
visitation. It was the period when deep down in his own soul 
Jesus must have formed the profound convictions of spiritual 
- truth which later he declared with such authority. In these 
days he gathered the will power and the determination to live 
with unwavering fidelity the sublime ideal of perfect sonship 
toward God. Perhaps he did not then know that the living of 
it would mean certain death! ‘The picture is word-painted 
truly by Caroline Hazard: 


“Up from the Jordan straight His way He took | 
To that lone wilderness, where rocks are hurled, 
And strewn, and piled,—as if the ancient world 


5 


[I-3] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


In strong convulsions seethed and writhed and shook, 

Which heaved the valleys up, and sunk each brook, 
And flung the molten rock like ribbons curled 
In mists of gray around the mountain whirled :— 

A grim land, of a fierce, foreboding look. 

The wild beasts haunt its barren, stony heights, 
And wilder visions came to tempt Him there; 
For forty days and forty nights, 

Alone He faced His mortal self and sin, 

Chaos without and chaos reigned within, 
Subdued and conquered by the might of prayer!” 


First Week, Third Day 


And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought 
up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue 
on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there 
was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. 


And when he had opened the book, he found the place — 


where it was written, 


The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, 


Because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to 


the poor; 
He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, 
To preach deliverance to the captives, 
And recovering of sight to the blind, 
To set at liberty them that are bruised, 
To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 


And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the min- 
ister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in 
the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say 
unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. 
And all bare him witness and wondered at the gracious 
words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, 
Is not this Joseph’s son? ... and he said unto them, Ye 
will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thy- 
self: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also 
here in thy country. 


And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is ac- 


cepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth, many 
widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven 


was shut up three years and six months, when great famine | 





Poe MEP ON Tin HIE lLOP [1-3] | 


was throughout the land; but unto none of them was Elias 
sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that 
was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel at the time 
of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, 
saving Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue, 
when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and 
rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto 
the brow of the hill, whereon the city was built, that they 
might cast him down headlong. But he passing through 
the midst of them went his way.—Luke 4: 16-30. 


In this vivid and startling picture in Luke’s gospel we find 


_recorded one of the most accurate incidents in Jesus’ ministry. 


The foreshadowing of later tragedy is in this picture. We 


catch the note of fearlessness in his words, we hear the deep 


thundering, challenging, rebuking tones of the prophet in his 


‘voice. In his own home town, in his own home church, he 


takes the flaming words of reform from the burning lips of 
a great hero of his people, Isaiah, and makes them the starting 


point of his ministry of redemption! The neighbors and 


friends are startled at the gracious power now throbbing at 
its mature pitch in the life of this young prophet. ‘Can this 
be the son of the carpenter?” they ask. They are disposed 
to praise and commend until they hear the type of message he 
dares to proclaim. It is a message that cuts across their 
narrdw patriotism and declares the world-wide brotherhood 
of humanity. Their provincial pride is stabbed to the heart, 
and full of kindled wrath, they drag him from the pulpit and 
out of the city to the brow of the hill where they would have 
killed him had not some loyal friends interfered. But so he 
begins his ministry, rejected and cast out of his own home 
town! i 

One can readily imagine how troubled Mary, his mother, 
must have been. One can almost see her, saying good-bye to 
her son, who has disgraced himself in the eyes of the whole 
village. She is probably begging him to be careful, urging 
him not to say anything which will anger the rulers and the 
Pharisees and the Jerusalem scribes who will be less easy on 
him than the local reactionaries. We can see him gently take 
his: mother in his arms, wiping from her eyes the tears, com- 
forting her with words of infinite tenderness and asking her 


to trust him and her fully to the great love and will of God. 


7 


[1-4] THE MASTERS MESSAGE 


Katherine Tynan, in her beautiful poem, forecasts for us the 
4reatment which now the Master must expect: 


“ ‘Sweetest Son, what dost Thou see? 
In Thine eyes groweth the shadow. 
Dost Thou weary of earth and me 
While we wander iin this sweet meadow ?” 


“Mother of mine, I look ona place 
And men asleep ‘neath a darkling sky; 
‘One crieth out with a stricken face, 
Oh! Mother, I fear that man Stal be 


“Thou dreamest, my ‘Son! Is naught to fear. 
Sit and play ’neath the blooming bough. 
Here ‘be thine angels, merry and dear, 
Thy Father -will send Thee guards enow.’ 


‘But, Mother, I see a rabble rout, 
And one among them is dragged to die. 
“Crucifige!” the voices shout. 
Oh! Mother, I fear that man is 1.’ 
“Peace, dear Lordkin; there ‘be Thy birds, 
The Kid, Thy sweeting, the lamb, the dove; 
Thy Father will send Thee a million swords 
Ere any harm Thee, my Baby love!’ 


‘Oh! Mother, I see a man of grief, 
Nailed to a cross on achill-top high; 
His head is bowed betwixt thief and thief, 
Oh! Mother, I :think that man is I’ ” 


‘First Week, Fourth Day 


And he came down +o -Capernaum, -a &ity of Galilee, and 
taught them qn the sabhath days. And they were aston- 
‘ished at his doctrine: for his word was with power. . . 


a 


And he said to them, I must preach the kingdom of ‘God | 


to other cities also, for therefore am I sent. And he 
preached in the synagogues 7 Galilee.—Luke 4: 31-32, 43-44 





THE TEMPLE ON THE HILL-TOP [I-s} 


Following the rejection at Nazareth, we find Jesus at Caper- 
naum, that tiny village close to the shores of Galilee. May it 
not have been that at this time he brought his mother down 
to this little place to make her home? For would it not have 
been most unpleasant for her, who was now a widow, to re- 
main in Nazareth where her son had been disgraced? 

At any rate we find Capernaum the headquarters for a 
preaching tour through the Galilean lake country. He goes 
out to speak to the people on street corners, in wayside inns, 
on sandy shores, beneath twisted olive trees, in quiet homes. 
He visits city after city, and in some places finds opportunity 
to speak in the synagogues the new message of the “kingdom 
of God.’ What was this message? A declaration of the 
Fatherhood of God, the world-wide brotherhood of all men, 

the supremacy of service, a challenge to a life of sacrificial 
helpfulness and healing kindness, a readjustment of life’s 
values, a new law of absolute and unfailing Love! This was 
the most fruitful period of his life, a time when the good he 
- was doing left its impression far and wide! 


“Should not the glowing lilies of the field 
With keener splendor mark His footprints yet 
Prints of those gentle feet whose passing healed 
All blight from Tabor unto Olivet?” 


First Week, Fifth Day 


So much the more went there a fame abroad of him: 
and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed 
by him of their infirmities.—Luke 5:15. 

And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, 
and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of 
people out of all Judza and Jerusalem, and from the sea 

coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to 
be healed of their diseases.—Luke 6:17. 

And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought 
unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases 
and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, 
and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy: 
and he healed them. And there followed him great multi- 
tudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from 
Jerusalem, and from Judza, and from beyond Jordan.— 

Matt. 4:24-25. 

iB 9 





[1-6] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE t, 


The fame of Jesus had spread abroad through all of Galilee, 
and crowds of people followed him, some out of curiosity. 
others with eager interest in the new gospel, many sick and 
despondent and tired and discouraged, looking to the great 
Teacher for help and health. All who heard him marveled 
at the bright, glowing, happy face. All who listened stood 
aghast at the penetrating, revolutionary, dynamic words of 
power that poured from those firm lips, unafraid. There was 
an electric magnetism about him, an entrancing sweetness in 
his voice, a calm and beauty about his features which spoke 
unmistakably of the peace of God in his heart. How he healed 


a | pe "4 


perhaps we shall never be able to tell, He had some secret — 


which few men have known. There was a something in that 
touch of his, a something in that quiet demeanor, a something 
in the very light of his countenance which imparted new life 
and new hope and new power to every life he. approached! 
John Clare describes him well: 


“His presence was a peace to all, 
He bade the sorrowful rejoice; 
Pain turned to pleasure at his call, 
Health lived and issued from his voice. 
He healed the sick, and sent abroad 
The dumb rejoicing in the Lord. 


“The blind met daylight in his eye, 
The joys of everlasting day; 
The sick found health in his reply; 
The cripple threw his crutch away. 
Yet he with troubles did remain 
And suffered poverty and pain.” 


Jesus had now reached the very height of popularity. But ; 
3t was not to be for long. He was to know the fate of all — 
real prophets. The self-seeking multitude was to disappear — 


gn darker days. 


‘First Week, Sixth Day 


¥ And it came to pass on a certain day when he was teach- 
‘ing, there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, 
10 





ed) 








THE TEMPLE ON: THE: HILL-TOP [1-6] 


which were come out of Galilee, and Judza, and Jerusalem. 
—Luke 5:17. 

And the scribes and Pharisees began to reason, saying, 
Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive 
sins, but God alone?—Luke 5:21. 

But their scribes and Pharisees murmured, saying, Why 
do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?—Luke 
5°30. - 

And certain of the Pharisees said unto them, Why do ye 
mee which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath days?— 

uke 6:2. 


The growing popularity of Jesus with the crowd has had 
one very noticeable result: the rulers, the Pharisees, the 
scribes, the elders, the chief priests have grown envious and 
jealous and hostile! This period of the gospel narrative is 
characterized by one very marked and recurring fact: the 
growing hostility of the “powers that be!” 

This was just what one should expect. Wherever the vivid 
- color of the real Jesus comes to light in the fourfold portrait 
of the gospels, we get the vision of an immensely radical and 
challenging figure, utterly at variance with the thought, the 
religion, and the contemporary patriotism of his day. We see 
a teacher whose message ruthlessly smashed the shams of the 
current orthodoxy to smithereens, whose rapier-like thrusts 
of keen truth cut the hypocritical religion of the day to the 
very heart, whose tremendous sincerity and fearless righteous- 
ness so challenged the selfish and worldly and conventional 
life of the Jewish church and nation that the name of the 
bold Nazareth radical became a byword from one end of 
Palestine to the other. 

But he who dares defy the strongholds of the “status quo,” 
even though truth and justice and right be on his side, takes 
his life in his hands and flirts with death and destruction. 
‘Jesus had healed on the sabbath, had taken grain for his 
friends from the fields on the sabbath, had supped with pub- 
licans and sinners, had preached doctrines of brotherhood and 
God’s character which were at variance with the current 
teaching, had told a poor despondent soul that he might 
consider his sins forgiven! These things in the eyes of the ~ 
blind Pharisees were hideous crimes against social and re- 
ligious orthodox standards. So they set up a spy system to 

II 


{I-7] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE F 


catch him. We are told that Pharisees and doctors of the 


Jaw sat by to listen for evidence of blasphemy. We hear that 
scribes and Pharisees watched him, that they might find an 
accusation against him, We learn that they were filled with 


madness because of his disregard for their sabbath laws, and ~ 


they communed one with another what they might do to Jesus. 
Thus was the stage prepared for that terrific drama where 
God's great Son of Love was to be set in his struggle with 
the gathering forces of a vicious and reactionary group of 
selfish and worldly politicians! William Cowper gives us a 
good description of the enemies of Jesus: 


“He judged them with as terrible a frown 

As if not love, but wrath, had brought him down; 
Yet he was gentle as soft summer airs, 

Had grace for others’ sins, but none for theirs. ... 
The astonished vulgar trembled while he tore 

The mask from faces never seen before; 

He stripped the imposters in the noonday sun, 
Showed that they followed all they seemed to shun; 
Their prayers made public, their excesses kept 

As private as the chambers where they slept ; 

The temple and its holy rites profaned 

By mummeries He that dwelt in it disdained ; 
Uplifted hands, that at convenient times 

Could act extortion and the worst of crimes, 
Washed with a neatness scrupulously nice, 

And free from every taint but that of vice.” 


‘First Week, Seventh Day 


And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: 
and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles: 
Simon (whom he also named Peter) and Andrew his 
‘brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew 
‘and Thomas, James the Son of Alpheus, and Simon called 
Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, 
-which also was the traitor—Luke 6:13-16. 


It was almost certainly at the time of the appointing of the 
twelve that the Sermon on the Mount was delivered. We shall 
ainderstand the sermon best when we recall the circumstances 

12 





: 
j 
2 
7 
q 
" 


THE TEMPLE ON THE HILL-TOP [1-7] 


of Jesus’ youth, the divine revelation at his baptism and the’ 
quiet weeks of preparation in the wilderness, the violent ex- 
pulsion from Nazareth, the wide preaching and healing in 
Galilee, the immense popularity of the young prophet who 
had attracted crowds from all the country round about, the 
rapidly increasing bitterness of the hostile leaders of the com- 
‘munity and nation, and the growing feeling in Jesus’ mind that- 
he might have to go to an early death, thus making it neces- 
sary for him to have trained representatives to carry on the 
message. 

Out of the crowd who followed him, therefore, the Master’ 
now selects twelve men. Peter, Andrew, James, John, and- 
Matthew had already met Jesus and had been invited to share’ 
the cause (see Luke 5). Twelve was perhaps the number of 
intimate disciples which most of the prophets had had. At- 
any rate Jesus feels that to face the terrific spiritual experi- 
ences in store for him in the days ahead he needs must have 
near him a small group of intimate and sympathetic friends-.- 
It was a wayfaring, self-sacrificing, homeless, penniless life 
of missionary ministry to which he called them. It is sur- 
prising that these men responded so quickly. And there must: 
have been hundreds besides in the multitude who gladly and 
eagerly would have followed him had they been chosen. It 
was a precious privilege to be in that group of the Master’s 
first brotherhood, but all who were chosen were of the 
humbler class of life. The twelve entrusted with his cause 
were of the poor (with the possible exception of Matthew),- 
who found it comparatively easy to leave all and follow him. 


“Not chance, but choice, did first apostles make; 
Christ did not them at all adventures take; 
But as his heavenly wisdom thought most fit 
E For his won purpose, so he ordered it. 
He raised not an army for to fight 
And force religion, but did men invite 
By gentle means. Twelve of the simpler sort 
Served to make up his train, and kept his court.” 


13 


[I-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


MEDITATION FOR THE WEEK 


And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: 
and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: and he 
opened his mouth, and taught them.—Matt. 5:1-2. 


I 


For days Jesus had been teaching and preaching and healing 
continually. The tide of public favor was running high. The . 
sick and the leprous and the blind had hobbled their way to 
him in yearning hope of healing. The cripples had been 
carried by friends to be laid by the wayside for his touch as 
he passed by. The beggars and the outcasts had heard of the 
new messenger of God, and they had come seeking a new life 
of hope. The bereaved, the troubled, the distressed had ~ 
learned of a face bright with a divine and unquenchable joy, 
and they too had arrived within the borders of Galilee with 
all confidence that some angel from the other world might 
tell them of an immortal promise. Pharisees, scribes, elders, 
and doctors of the law, hearing of the impulsive young heretic, 
had come thither with but one dire purpose: to gain some 
evidence which might deliver him into their hateful hands. 
For they were filled with jealousy at his popularity with the 
people, and with a terrible anger because of his fearless re- 
bukes of the accepted customs in religion and society. It was 
a vast assemblage and there was no place within the village 
where the crowd could comfortably congregate. Jesus, there- 
fore, wisely led them out from the narrow streets up a slight 
incline to an ample hill where in the open beneath God’s sky | 
was plenty of room for all who would come to hear him. 

Behind the mists of the centuries the actual site of the 
sermon is hidden. An early western tradition identifies it as 
the Horns of Hattin, twin peaks west of the shores of Galilee. 
Jerome mentions Mount Tabor, which is southwest of the 
Sea of Galilee. The site is certainly among the many hills 
just west of the Galilean lake, and very probably in that 
region close to the thickly populated shore between Magdala — 
and Capernaum. 

At any rate it is not hard for us to reconstruct the ex- 
traordinary scene of that momentous sermon. Jesus has been 
all night in prayer on the brow of the hill. At dawn he 


14 





THE TEMPLE ON THE HILL-TOP [I-m] 


selects from among his most intimate friends twelve men 
who are to share his most personal comradeship within the 
inner circle of brotherhood. The events that follow are some- 
thing in the nature of an ordination service. The Master no 
doubt is seated on or near a bowlder. Among Orientals one 
never stands when he can be seated. The sitting position is 
the one universally assumed by the public teacher. It is a 
position of ease and comfort and informality. Near the feet 
of Jesus sit also the newly appointed twelve. Around the 
circle of the hillside, some sitting, some lying, a few standing, 
are the multitudes of people who have come to listen. Mostly 
poor and humble folk they are, a goodly number in rags, a 
great number sickly and pale and diseased, many quite desti- 
tute, some starving. In the foreground there are fishermen 
and mechanics and artisans. Here are the laborers and the 
ever-present shepherds. Here are mothers nursing their chil- 
dren, or even young boys and girls with their younger sisters 
and brothers. On one side one may see a little group of 
whispering scribes and Pharisees. Here are the Roman 
soldiers, sent by the tetrarch to verify fears of sedition. 
Probably on the fringe of the crowd one perceives strangers, © 
foreigners, travelers, stopping for a moment to see what it 
is all about. Sinners and saints they are, diseased and dis- 
tressed, callous and cold, humble and proud, a few in silk 
but most in homespun or tattered remnants; they represent 
a pretty good cross-section of the humanity of that ancient 
world. And if we knew their hearts, we should see a fair 
cross-section of what human nature is like in our own day. 
Here speaks the Master then; he who in later days will meet 
many of this same multitude and have his ardent, young, and 
beautiful life crushed out upon their bloody cross! Let us 
look again through the eyes of Caroline Hazard at that hill- 
top temple: 


“An upland hill, with sandy soil and bare; 
Tall tufts of grass start from the barren ground 
And branching bushes; scattered all around 
Are jagged rocks to form a shelter where 
The foxes still have holes and make their lair; 
While birds of prey up in the still profound 
Of lambent sky are circling o’er the mound 


15 


[I-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


Twin-crested, basking’ in the springtime air. 
- It was upon that sun-crowned little hill. 
» Béneath the Syrian sky the Master spoke 
Such blessed words that they are living still!” 


II 


It is scarcely possible for us to imagine all the exquisite 
contrasts of that Oriental spring morning. Brilliant hues of 
springtime mountain flowerets must have filled the crannies 
‘and nooks of the rocky hillsides. Soft, rich green foliage 
of bending olive trees must have lifted welcome shade for a 
fortunate few from the bright, streaming sun of the glaring 
astern sky. Bright-colored costumes, here and there, touched 
the company with starry brightness. Singing birds wheeled 
overhead in the blue of heaven. Sheep browsed lazily in the 


scarce grass of the lower pastures, adding an element of peace ~ 3 


and carefree nature to a scene which otherwise spoke of sick- 
ness and sin and heart-hungry humanity. To the north the 
gleaming white peak of Hermon reflected the brilliance of 
the morning sun. While to the south Tabor’s green sides 
made marvelous contrast against the prevailing stone-gray of 
the Palestinian landscape. 
What a glorious day it was for the Master! It was not 


only the high-day of his popularity. It was not only the : 


spiritual birthday of twelve of his friends. But it was the 
day upon which he was to pronounce in unmistakable accents 
those truths which were to stand before men as teaching for 
eternity!’ But even more: the very ground upon which he 


sat, in memory of his mighty life of love, was to be named 


forever Holy Land! This day he had called confused and _ 
perplexed and needy souls to a service in Nature’s temple. 
And all the world seemed to conspire to add beauty to the 
divine scene. For sweet incense the flowers offered their — 
fragrant perfume. For text the lilies lifted their snow-white — 
chalices filled with golden dew. For anthem the larks chanted 
their exquisite music. For altar the greensward gave its bril- 
liant sheen. For pulpit a mighty boulder was prepared. The 
cathedral: naves were even Hermon on the north and Tabor 
on the south, and over all was the arched ceiling of royal 
blue. How many’an inspiring vista did the congregation see 
16 








THE TEMPLE ON THE HILL-TOP [I-m] 


from the mountain height that glorious morning! What 
pleasing, healing prospects stretched before their view! They 
did not realize, however, that before them was the highest 
mountain peak of human character, the divinest man that ever 
breathed! 

As again we vision in our thought that unique occasion, 
something of the same spell of wonder and inspiration comes 
~ over us even as it overwhelmed those first disciples. We feel 
emotions moving over our hearts too profound to explain, 
calling forth from our lips the same words of adoration 
which were uttered by George Matheson: ; 


“Son of Man before whose portrait I stand today, 
Thou art still unique, alone... . 
Others have stood on the same Mount with Thee, 
But Thou alone hast caught the glory. 
To me Thou speakest ever, not on the Mount but from the 
Mount. 
Thy voice is from aloft; I am always below it. 
I may have seen the painted rainbow in the sky, 
Yet the rainbow in the sky remains original. 
So it is with my sight of Thee. 
Thy face gives new meaning to the instincts of my soul. 
Old words on Thy lips become winged. 
Plain chords on Thy harp become melody. 
Truths spoken long ago become discoveries in Thee. 
The trite terms of endearment that man utters to man thrill 
With the surprise of pathos when they are uttered by Thee. 
The language is from Galilee, but the accent is from 
Heaven!” 


III 


He who would climb the steep ascent of the soul’s great 
adventure and stand with Jesus on the mountain top of vision 
must pay the price Jesus paid. He who would understand ‘to 
the full the holy truth of this charter of Christian faith, 
called the Sermon on the Mount, must enter its spirit through 
the same door of fearless, unequivocal consecration to God’s 
will for humanity. For thirty years he husbanded his 
strength for this transcendent hour. To the occasion he came 
in full possession of all his energies and powers, physical, 
: 17 


{I-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


mental, moral, and spiritual. All night we see him in silent 
communion with the great All-Father that in the morning 
all the hidden recesses of his spirit may be ready with in- 
spiration and instinct with magnetic force. The responsibility 
is great but he is ready! 

His theme is determined by his audience. With masterful 
skill he pictures the Ideal Life as a spiritual condition, not a 
worldly possession. He depicts the only reliable bases for a 
worthy human society. He shows how a corrupt and con- 
fused, how an unjust and cruel and disordered world has 
emerged from the faultiness of the current social and religious 
ideals. He contrasts the empty formalism of the old religion 
with the serene peace and abiding satisfaction of the new. 
With keen ethical insight and penetrating spiritual under- 
standing he points out the true treasures of life as not out- 
ward abundance but inward contentment, not the accumulation 
of riches but atonement with God. He shows with remorse- 
less logic that the secret of a good life is not correct ortho- 
doxy but worthy character. Through the sermon runs an 
undercurrent of direct address as if he were talking pointedly 
to the newly ordained men in the front row. But at the 
same time words leap out to rebuke the cold formalism of the 
Pharisees, to convert the worldly from the futile mammon 
pursuit, and to comfort the sorrowing and the broken-hearted. 

While the Master was adjusting this message to the hearts 
of the multitude before him, at the same time he was speaking 
to the world unlimited by time or space. He was aiming to 
state the fundamental principles of living so that they would 
be universally intelligible. He was deducing personal and 
social laws for humanity’s guidance, laws as real and as abid- 
ing as evolution or gravitation or chemical affinity or elec- 
tricity. Every bit of his profound intellectual genius, every 
ounce of physical energy, and every resource of his magnificent 
spiritual capacity were called into play that he might set forth 
here a real word of God for the guidance of the Father's 
earthly children. <a 

Jesus is here more in line with Amos and Isaiah and Jere- 
miah and Hosea than with Moses or Ezekiel. He is the 
prophet of the glowing face, hair rustling in the breeze, eyes” 
shining like stars, body thrilling and pulsating under the 
strong emotion of a divine pronouncement. Back of every 

18 





THE TEMPLE ON THE HILL-TOP  [I-m] 


sentence is the urge of earnest thought, the depth of ultimate 
truth, the force of experiential conviction. The whole mes- 
sage suggests a controlled power, a sublime resourcefulness. 
In every sentence we see scintillating, yet simple, truth that 
goes deep to the heart of nature and humanity. Every example 
of winsome statement is employed: picture, paradox, and 
parable, symbol, simile, epigram, and metaphor. It is the 
startling style of the seer who sees, the spokesman of God 
who has the courage to speak. Here are no theological mys- 
teries, no philosophical vagaries, no cynical pessimisms, but 
the bright and shining truth of one whose soul windows were 
clean as the day to receive the light of the Creator’s revealing! 
SEV; 

The New Testament is full of the words of Jesus, but 
nowhere can we find anything that compares with the sen- 
tences of the Sermon on the Mount for obvious Christlikeness 
in color and quality and fire. In many places in our gospels 
his words have been made the vehicle for old and puzzling 
prophecies by Jewish scribes and editors. Some took his clear 
narratives and gave them a supernatural turn; others inserted 
ecclesiastical references and eschatological promises in the 
simple discourses. These were not always deliberate dis- 
honesties but ignorant misinterpretations of the real meaning 
of the Master’s message. Jesus was as far above the heads 
of his friends and the men who edited his biographies as he 
is above the average mass of men today. Often his closest 
intimates misunderstood and misquoted him. His vision of 
the Kingdom of Heaven was so new and revolutionary that 
its implications fell on deaf ears and unresponsive hearts. 
Indeed, Jesus himself says that his message was to fall on 
gross hearts, dull ears, and closed eyes (Matt. 13: 10-17). If 
men say they cannot be sure what Jesus said, we can refer 
them with safety to the Sermon on the Mount in the fifth, 
sixth and seventh chapters of Matthew. For there as no- 
where else do we find the unadulterated thoughts of the 
Master. 

But lite is different today, say some. Why try to live 
according to a code enunciated twenty centuries ago in the 
dim ages of antiquity? But is life different? Externals are, 

19 


[I-m] THE MASTER'S MESSAGE 


yes. But life itself—still the same! Different houses, differ- 
ent food, different clothes, different schools, different churches, 
different books—yes. But houses are still made of wood and 
stone for the purpose of dwelling in them. Clothes still come 
from sheep’s wool, field cotton, and hides, and serve the same 
purpose of covering the body. Foods still come from grains, 
fruits, animals, vegetables, fish, and serve the same end of 
nourishment. Schools are still based on the search for truth 
(or ought to be) and churches on the longing for God (or 
should be!). Books still are “papyrus” sheets to bear rec- 


ords and writings. Our modern world is most surely altered — . 


externally, but inwardly it is the same old world, with the 
same old human needs and problems. Still sin and fear and 
selfishness are the arch-demons that destroy. To be sure, we 
are confronted today with gigantic political, industrial, pro- 
fessional, and institutional problems which Jesus never had to 
face. But what will solve them so quickly as the application 
of the truth which Jesus has given us in the Sermon on the 
Mount? “In the so-called ages of faith,” says Dr. E. F. Scott, 
“the New Testament, with its counsels of perfection, was 
hardly permitted to interfere in the ordinary business of life. 
In our days, when the old beliefs are tottering, it has become 
the most practical factor in the world’s affairs!” 

The duty of men today who believe in progress is to appro- 
priate and use every resource which will aid humanity’s for- 
ward march. This spirit of progress has already expressed 
itself in marvelous contributions to man’s comfort and con- 


venience. ‘Machinery has transformed industry, the engine — 


has revolutionized travel, the radio and the telephone have 
vastly increased the radius of communication, and the sciences 
generally have contributed tremendously to the material prog- 
ress of man. The development of man’s moral and spiritual 
nature, however, has not kept pace with his mechanical de- 
velopment of the world’s resources. Herein lies civilization’s 
great danger. In our program for society we have neglected 
to embody a morality training robust enough, a character 
discipline adequate enough, and a religion sane enough to 
cooperate with and inspire our mechanical powers for higher 
and nobler ends! Christianity, possessing the priceless heritage 
of inspiration and truth embodied in Jesus Christ, ought to 


be able to contribute to human society the needed moral fiber | 


20 





THE TEMPLE ON THE AILL-TOP [I-m] 


and the truer spiritual! heart. The men and women crowding 
our churches are unaware of their opportunity and their re- 
sponsibility. They really want to contribute to moral and 
spiritual progress, but they do not know the issues, and they 
lack the wisdom and power to go ahead if they did. The 
way to begin is to lve the Sermon on the Mount. It, and it 
alone, gives us an adequate character standard and behavior 
ideal. To the extent that individuals can put to practice the 
religion enshrined in this sermon will Christians make any 
difference to our materialistic world. “A man is vitally and 
inwardly a Christian,” says Dr. Fosdick, “only to the degree 
in which he himself possesses the kind of religion which Jesus 
Christ possessed!” 

We can come up this gleaming mount with Jesus Christ 
and hear his words, and if we have no moral courage in us, 
we can go back down to the valleys to walk no more with 
him. But it may be that on these moral heights we shall 
breathe the invigorating air of noble and lofty idealism, the 
very breath of heaven. If we do once catch the thrill and 
contagion of it all, we shall not want to lose the glory of this 
higher life for the darkness of the misty flats below. No 
~ society can rise above the dark confusion and strife set up by 
the blind and careless sin and injustice which go on in the 
_world’s low spots, unless a considerable number of men and 
women accept and live the. personal and social standards of 
this Sermon on the Mount. It stands as a perpetual challenge 
at the crossroads of life: “This do and ye shall live; this deny 
and ye shall perish!” Votaw rightly estimates the value of 
this summary of Christian idealism when he says, “These 
_words of Jesus present an ideal of human life, founded upon 
religious truth and ethical principles, which have been and are 
intuitively recognized as the highest standard of life yet 
conceived, or even the ultimate standard to which mankind 


can and must attain!” 


Vv 


_ Here, then, stands Christianity’s heroic and fearless poet 

on his Mount of vision! He speaks with authority because 

of what is in him: noble character, beautiful personality, poetic 

imagination, spiritual insight. These qualities. combine to 
s ; 21 


[I-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 
: 


make him earth’s rarest prophet. Even today he calls his 
disciples to him, and asks them to sit with him for a little 
space to meditate on life’s meaning and society’s future! No 
line he draws between them and him. What he has done, he 
assumes they can do. What he is, he assumes they can be. 
He only asks that they follow his way to the life that is true 
and happy and fearless and godlike even as his own. He in- 
spires, yet he challenges. He awakes eager hope, yet he 
fiercely rebukes sin. He believes supremely in man’s capacity, 
but he warns against man’s ruin. In man’s possibilities his 
faith is great, but in God’s goodness his trust is greater! 

A. friend of mine once spoke disparagingly of another’s 
sermons, calling them “sentimental poetry.” No man who 
talks like that can possibly appreciate the divine message of 
this sermon. For every line of it is gloriously sentimental and 
wonderfully poetic. The Master is here the Strong Spokes- 
man of God, and no shallow religionist, ruled by prejudice, 
can understand the deep thoughts of life that issue from his 
soul! The Master here is the Sweet Singer of Galilee, and 
his song is the sublimest spiritual poetry to which man ever 
listened ! ci 

The traveler may today stand in the streets of Bruges, near 
the old cathedral. About him is all the clatter of the market 
square, feet tramping, tongues rattling at booths and stores; 
then suddenly a shower of sweet notes falls from the tower 
above. Crisp tinklings as of a bird’s trill at first, fine war- 
blings then come trembling down from the spire until the 
whole air is filled with deeper and deeper tones of thers 
sonorous bells, until at last they all unite in pouring forth 
an unearthly melody in strange contrast to the scene of vulgar 
life in the market place. In-some such way the sweetness 
and exquisite beauty of Jesus’ words fell upon that strange 
group on the Palestinian hillside long ago. From the rare 
and delicate truths of the opening lines to the wider and 
deeper messages of the new dispensation, they chime and 
ring like spiritual bells announcing a new and better age. No 
one dreamed how noble they were at the time. But today 
we see that no man can win life’s fullest victory unless these — 
bells of truth awake his sleeping conscience and inspire to 
life’s supreme adventure: the quest of perfect nobility and 
self-surrendered service! The world will never tire of hear- 

22 ~ 





“THE TEMPLE ON THE HILL-TOP [I-q] 


ing the spiritual music of these bells. Nor will men fail to 
acclaim him who heeds and goes out upon the quest where 
leads this victorious Poet of Galilee. For we all willingly 
join in tribute with those thrilling words of William Ellery 
Leonard: 


“Gods, because more than all others, 

Gods, because men at man’s worth, 

Ye, both our masters and brothers, 
Poets of Earth! 

Out of a wonderful place 

Out of the ancient Design, 

Out of the soul of the race, 

Out of the nameless Divine, 

Fed on the past and its dearth, 

Fed on the fulness to be, 

Whether from Ind, or A‘gzan, 

Jordan or Tiber, or waters that flow through our land to 

the sea, 

Saviors from zon to zon: 
Praise be to all!—but to thee, 
Praise above praise, Galilean! ... 
Even from me... even from me!” 


O God, our heavenly Father, help us to see again the vision 
of that bright Face upon the Mount. Give us courage to face 
the great truth that drops from those lips, that we may go 
out to build a better world in the new day by the power of 
His spirit. Amen. ~ 


LIFE QUESTIONS 


1. Why is the Sermon on the Mount as recorded in 
Matthew 5, 6 and 7 so valuable for a knowledge of Jesus and 
his message? 

2. Can you find elements in the sermon which suggest that 

Jesus was replying to the criticism of the Pharisees? com- 
_ forting the sorrowing? rebuking the common quest for riches? . 
cautioning youth? attacking the Roman government? suggest- 
ing a solution for war and violence? 


23 


a Pear tS ae ee? ee i, 
aot : SrA 4 ~ > 


[I-q] - THE MASTER’S MESSAGE — ae 


3. “The first thing Jesus did as a teacher was to make men 
re-think God... .” 

Make a list of the attributes of God referred to by Jesus 
in the sermon. Was the vision of God in Jesus’ eyes different 
in any vital respects from that of the prophets’ vision of 
Jehovah? 

4. Re-read Matthew 5-7, and list the common customs of 
the religion of the day, the ordinary standards of morals, the 
impulses that influenced personal and social behavior. 

5. Some scholars say the sermon is a ‘mere compilation of 
collected sayings, and never was delivered as an actual dis- 
course. Judging from internal evidence of the sermon itself 
what would you say as to this? 

6. Can you find in the sermon passages which suggest the — 
events which immediately preceded its preaching, such as his 
immense popularity with the common =people, the growing — 
hostility of the Pharisees and their group, the rejection at — 
Nazareth, the vision at the Baptism, the experience in the 
Wilderness, the calling of the twelve? 

7, The Ten Commandments announced by Moses from — 


Mount Sinai had been the law of the Jews. In what way does — 


Jesus alter them? Does he fail to mention any one of these 
laws? 

8. Why does Jesus fail to mention in this greatest sermon © 
the Christian doctrines which loom so large in the creeds? 

9. Make a list of little windows in this sermon through ~ 
which we may look at the common life of Jesus’ day, at some —_ 
of his own experiences, at the inmost struggles of his own — 
heart. : 

10. What is the secret of Jesus’ method as a teacher? 


What is his purpose? Define the kingdom of God as taught 


by Jesus. 





CHAPTER II 


Secrets of Happiness in the 
New Day 


DAILY READINGS 


All the world is concerned with the quest of happiness. 
Different folks may call it different names, but if the heart 
could define its yearnings it would phrase them in terms of 
joy. The artist, the student, the man of business, the athlete, 
even the monk and the nun in the monastery, and all the rest 
of us are consciously or unconsciously engaged in the same 
eternal quest. But few of us are finding what we seek. May 
not this failure be due to the fact that we lack a clear idea 
of what happiness really is? May it not come about that 
happiness eludes us because we seek her in the wrong way? 
In our daily readings, let us see what Jesus can teli us about 
this questing for happiness which absorbs the interest of us all. 


Second Week, First Day 


Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; when they now 
shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that sum- 
mer is nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these 
things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is 
nigh at hand.—Luke 21:29-31. 


Let us recognize, at the outset, that the discovery of the 
secret of happiness may mean a seeing of God’s wondrous 
beauty all about us in earth’s commonest things. Not a blade 
of grass, not a leaf-dripping bough, not a pebble on the shore, 

25 


[II-1] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE , 


not a piece of board, not one of those humblest things right 
near us but is full of beauty and wonder if we have eyes to 
see it. The kingdom of God is nigh us in the plainest tasks, 
in the commonest places, and in ways which we least expect. 

Rupert Brooke, the beloved soldier-poet of Britain, had 
this insight which sees joy in common things, when he sang: 


“These I have loved, white plates and cups, clean- gleaming, 
Ringed with blue lines; and feathery, fairy dust; 
Wet roofs, beneath the lamplight; and_the strong crust 
Of friendly bread!” 


In bird and bee and flower and tree, when summer comes 
back again, we seé God coming in his kingdom of Nature. 
In treasures of bird-song, in lovely vistas of bright gardens, 
we too shall know and see that heaven is nigh at hand. We 
shall find happiness like the Psalmist who saw God in the dew 
of Hermon descending in fresh glory, in the springs sending 
their waters through the valleys, in the rich green grass and 
the delicate flower. Let the joy-seeker learn his lesson from 
that beautiful poem of Mary Thayer’s, “To a Tourist”: 


“Ts it beauty that you seek, 

O traveler? 

Is it beauty you would find? 

But beauty lives within the mind 
And heart of man. Forbear to peer 
Down distant roads. Beauty is near. 


“Do you think that in strange lands, 
On tropic seas— 

She is more fair? More real? 

O wanderer, when will you feel 
The breath of beauty in the air, 
And touch her garment everywhere? 


“O restless feet, O tired eyes, 
Seeking afar 
That which slumbers in the grass 
Beneath your footsteps as you pass; 
That which to an instant clings, 
And dwells in little common things!” 
26 





SECRETS OF HAPPINESS IN THE NEW DAY [11-31 


Second Week, Second Day 


Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born 
again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.—John 3:3. 


Finding the secret of happiness may involve, for some at 
least, a radical change in personal conduct and habit of life. 
There may be certain habits ingrained in our lives which 
must be absolutely cast out before we can know real happi- 
ness. ‘Many a man must be born again before he can enter 
the kingdom of God’s happiness. 

When Higgins went among the lumber-jacks of the Minne- 
sota woods he found them hilariously in pursuit of what they 
called pleasure, but which was really their own ruin. It was 
his problem to win to real happiness such men as “Jimmie 
the Beast,” a low, notorious brute who actually emerged one 
day drunk and hungry from a Deer River Saloon to rob a 
bulldog of his bone and gnaw it himself. He had.to rescue 
to real living such men as “Damned Soul Jenkins,’ who after 
his weekly spree would go moaning into the forest, conceiv- 
ing himself condemned to roast forever in hell, and beyond 
the power of his mother’s prayers to save him. Such men 
have no hope of happiness unless they pass before the con- 
quering power of Jesus to be born anew into a finer life. 

That Jesus can personally capture a man ruined by bad 
habits and bless him with new life is not mere theory. It 
has been done, many times. One of the happiest men J know 
today is a friend whom I had the joy to Help through to 
victory in a hard struggle with drink and poverty and dis- 
couragement; he was born again on his knees in the presence 
of Jesus. I have seen men at the old Water ‘Street Mission, 
with shining faces and beautiful lives, tell of their joy as it 
came to them through a transformed life. Verily, except a 
man be born again from the old life with its ugly sins to the 
new life with its spiritual power, he cannot know the kingdom 
of true happiness! 


Second Week, Third Day 


But Jesus called them unto him and said, Suffer little 
children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such 
is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever » 

27 


4 


[11-4] THE MASTER'S MESSAGE ae 


shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall 
in no wise enter therein—Luke 18:16-17. 


The releasing of real happiness in our lives may oftentimes 
depend on our possessing the childlike spirit. The real sinners 
of this world are not always those who give their bodies over 
to gross physical sin. But the real sinners are frequently 
those who have hearts full of pride and deceit and anger and 
all forms of spiritual sin and secret faults. As Marguerite 
Wilkinson has so well put it: “Pride in virtue cold and small 
may be the foulest sin of all!” The man who sins against his 
own body injures no one but himself. But the man who 


brings to the world a hardness of heart, an evil disposition, a_ a 


spirit of jealousy and pride and ill-will, will spoil not only 
his own happiness but the happiness of everyone around him. 
The kingdom of God cannot be received, said Jesus, unless we — 
have the spirit of little children. 

For the little child is teachable. It’s little heart is as open 
as the sky is to the sunlight. The child ‘knows not the studied | 
stubbornness of the grown-up nor yet the proud ostracism 
of the eternally critical Pharisee. It is as natural as breath- 
ing for a child to be kind, tenderhearted, frank, honest, sin- - 
cere. It learns the opposites of these from its elders. The 
rigid ice of many a cold, selfish heart must first be broken 
under the hammer of a holy humility before it can stoop with 
simplicity to enter that low door which leadeth unto life. 
Very meek, very pure, very innocent, very trusting must that 
life be which would enter the kingdom Jesus» means. For 
whosoever will not receive this kingdom in the spirit of a 
little child shall never enter into its joy! 


Second Week, Fourth Day 
My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.—John 5:17. 


Moreover, our happiness may depend upon our seeimy the 
world as a workshop and recognizing our main task as the 
creation of a personality which will be a work of art, the best 
life we know built of the best materials God has given! 

One suspects that Jesus was the supreme craftsman in the 
realm of character because he first learned the lesson of 

28 





SECRETS OF HAPPINESS IN THE NEW DAY [II-s] 


patience in his father’s carpenter shop. Modeling yokes, con- 
structing tables, carving cups and household implements, he 
learned the beauty of noble proportion and the joy of a task 
perfectly done. He sought to be a worker as patient and as 
perfect as his heavenly Father. When, therefore, the more 
serious business of building a life confronted him he rose 
superbly to the work, and, as in the grueling toil of the shop 
at Nazareth he held firmly to the task in hand through pain 
and weariness of spirit, so he held to the personal ideal 
through every bitter misunderstanding and every temptation 
to relax. 

Not otherwise shall we find life’s best satisfactions. If we 
spurn the vision which every day shines before our eyes, that 
vision of our best self, it shall slowly fade and we shall be 
left with the unhappiness of an imperfect character. Bishop 
- Doane gives us a hint of the glory that comes when per- 
sonality is created through conscious coOperation with the 
- Father: 


“Chisel fn hand stood a sculptor boy, 
With his marble block before him, 

And his face lit up with a smile of joy 
As an angel dream passed o’er him, 

He carved that dream on that shapeless stone 
With many a sharp incision; 

With Heaven’s own light the sculpture shone— 
He had caught that angel vision.” 


Second Week, Fifth Day 


These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might 
remain in you, and that your joy might be full—John 15:11. 


Finding permanent happiness may also mean that we have 
the capacity for the enjoyment of life the way Jesus did. 
_ The joy of Jesus was not based on carnal pleasures. The 
world of his day was full of opportunities to gratify the 
passions of the flesh. Many there were who took that road 
to what they thought was joy but which turned to dust and 
ashes in their hands. Many stood amazed in the presence of 
that serene happiness which he carried with him always even 

29 


[11-6], THE MASTER'S MESSAGE +3 


unto death. “My joy,’ he said he would give them, and that 
joy was a deep thing of the spirit, an unquenchable flame of 
holy happiness which never burned low. 

A little street girl once taught a nurse the meaning of 
happiness, Injured in a street accident she was taken to a 
hospital, where she seemed to enjoy herself immensely, despite 
her injury. One day she said to the nurse, “Say, ’'m havin’ 
real good times here. Didje ever hear about Jesus bein’ 
born?” 

“Yes,” replied the nurse, and added, “Sh-sh-sh! Don’t talk 
any more!” 

Then said the child, “I thought you looked as if you didn’t 
and I was going to tell you.” 

“Why, how do I look?” asked the nurse. 

“QO, just like most o’ folks—kind o’ glum!” replied the 
child. And that is a pretty good description of Christians - 
filling our churches, and folks filling our world today, they 
mostly look “kind o’ glum.” 

This characteristic atmosphere of depression which glooms 
the life of so many people, supposedly living with the religion 
of Jesus, arises from a failure fully to appreciate the mean- 
ing of Jesus’ joy. Our joy will be transitory, never brimming 
over in undiminished gladness, until we learn in his way to 
derive life’s best enjoyment from the high realm of the spirit! 


Second Week, Sixth Day 


Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as 
the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be 
troubled, neither let it be afraid.—John 14:27. 

These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might 
have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be 
of good cheer; I have overcome the world.—John 16:33. 


As we go this world’s pilgrim way, we must not forget that 
along the road many distractions, many disappointments, many 
heart-breaking experiences may be in store for us. How can 
we keep joy through this? Possessing happiness in the 
presence of the world’s unideal situations may involve a 
‘divine contentment. While one may wisely be. dissatisfied 
with things as they are among men, the petty strifes, the 

30 








SECRETS OF HAPPINESS IN THE NEW DAY [II-7] 


mean spirits, the human errors that cry out for redemption, 
the social wrongs that crush human beings beneath cruel in- 
justices, and while one may well engage with his brothers in 
all efforts to save, nevertheless, through it all one must still 
be a contented crusader. 

“Who is wise?” asks Ben Franklin. “He that learns from 
every one. Who is powerful? He that governs his passions. 
Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that?) Nobody!” 
How can we be continually rich with the happiness that faileth 
not unless we learn a peaceful contentment so deep the im- 
perfections of the world cannot reach it? “I have learned,” 
testifies that radiant apostle Paul, “in every state to be con- 
tent!” If the world be troubled around you, says Jesus, let 
not your heart be. There you can know my contentment and 
_my peace. If the world seems to give you only tribulation, 
fare forward without fear. Take unto your spirits my un- 
dimmed good cheer which can overcome the world’s troubles, 
every one! In the world we will have tribulation, we will 
have sorrow and suffering, but still can we keep Christ's 
peace! Burns shows us the spirit: 


“Hope not sunshine every hour, 
Fear not clouds will always lower. 
Happiness is but a name, 

Make content and ease thy aim.” 


Second Week, Seventh Day 


I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: 
and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in 
heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be 
loosed in heaven.—Matt. 16:19. 


Our realizing of life’s joy may in the final analysis involve 
our ability and our willingness to bring our religion into vital 
and living relation to our everyday life! 

After the benediction churchgoers pass out of the pews and 
through the church door, frequently saying in their hearts 
something like this, “Good-bye, Religion. I’ll be back next 
Sunday.” Of what value is a religion which can be put on 
like a coat on Sunday and then hung up in the closet of 


31 


-[II-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE ‘ 


forgetfulness the rest of the week? The religion of Jesus. 
selects no special Sabbath out of life’s days when piety and_ 


holiness and quickening joy are found and then forgotten on 
ordinary days. He wants every day as vitally full of strength- 
giving and joy-giving religion as we can make it. 


Carlyle said that the man who sings at his work is the hope 
of the world. It may be so. It suggests, however, that — 
society will be redeemed when men and women carry to every — 
endeavor of ordinary life the joyful spirit and the holy God- — 
consciousness of Jesus. We must unlock heaven with the — 


golden key of Jesus’ faith and let it free in the actual world. 


“Yesterday,” wrote Ruskin, “I went for a walk. As I came F. 
down a quiet hillside, a mile or two out of town, I passed a ~ 
house where women were at work spinning silk. There was 


a whirring sound as in an English mill; but at intervals they 


sang a Idw, sweet, chant, all together, lasting about two : 
minutes, then pausing a minute, and then beginning again. — 


It was good and tender music, and the multitude of voices 


prevented any sense of failure, so that it was very lovely — 
and sweet, and like the things I mean to try to bring to pass!” — 

When we all carry into our everyday living the sweet, vital — 
joy of Jesus’ faith, we shall begin to understand that prayer — 
we have so often prayed without real thought of its meaning, 


“Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven!” 


MEDITATION ON THE MASTER’S THOUGHT 


Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom of 3 


heaven. 
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. 
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. 


Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteous- © 


ness: for they shall be filled. 
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. 
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. 


Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the 


children of God. 


Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ 


sake: for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. 


Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute 
you, and shail say all manner of evil against you falsely, — 


for my sake. 


32 








_ SECRETS OF HAPPINESS IN THE NEW DAY [II-m] 


Rejoice and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in 
heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were 
before youu—Matt. 5:3-12. 


I 


To the Scientist we go for knowledge, to the Philosopher 

for insight, but to the Poet for knowledge and insight added 
to inspiration. That fair soul, Shelley, defined a poem as 
“the very image of life expressed in its external truth,” and 
of poetry he said that it was “the record of the best and 
happiest moments of the happiest and best minds.’ What- 
ever we may think of Shelley’s definitions, this at least we 
know: there is a penetrating clearness about poetry which is 
not always present in the statements of science; there is an 
emotional element connected with it which the dry definitions 
of philosophers always lack; and, above all, in true poetry, 
there is an exalted inspiration which we feel is as truly the 
warmth of the poet’s own soul as fragrance is the aroma of 
the flower. 
- But the true poet not only reveals life’s deepest truths to 
us, but he helps us to organize them in our own lives. So, 
truly speaks our noble Sidney, “Of all sciences the Poet is 
_ the Monarch. He dooth not only show the way, but giveth 
| so sweete a prospect ... as will entice any man to enter it. 
Nay, he dooth as if your journey should lye through a fayre 
Vineyard, at the first gives you a cluster of grapes, that full 
of that taste you may long to passe further. He beginneth 
not with obscure definitions ... but hee commeth to you 
with words set in delightful proportion; and with a tale 
_ forsooth he commeth unto you: with a tale which holdeth 
children from play and old men from the chimney corner.” 

Poetry thus powerfully appeals to man because it comes 
| to him on a universal plane. For, after all, the harmonies of 
the universe are in man as much as they are in the singing 
‘spheres. His very heart’s blood beats to a time, and like 
the ebb and flow of the eternal tides his very soul seems to 
be in tune with a recurring rhythm throughout all creation. 
In our materialistic day there is an attempt to divorce man 
from his poetic environment, to clip the wings of his imagina- 
tion, to drown his dreams in the ocean of reality, to remove 
a 33 


[II-m] THE MASTER'S MESSAGE if 


all his tenderest visions with the magic ward of one word: 

sentimentality! 

But are not the most priceless treasures of life saturated 
from top to bottom with sentiment? To hate poetry as senti-_ 

ment is to blight the best emotions of the whole race. “What 

is it to hate poetry?” asks Lord Dunsany. “It is to have no 


little dreams or fancies, no holy memories of golden days, — 


to be unmoved by serene midsummer evenings or dawn over 
wild lands, singing or sunshine, glowworms or briar roses; 
for of all of these things and more is poetry made! It is to 
be cut off forever from the fellowship of great men that are 


gone; to see men and women without their halos and the — 
world without its glory; to miss the meaning lurking behind ~ 


the common’ things, like elves hiding in flowers; it is to beat — 
one’s hands all day against the gates of fairyland and to find 
that they are shut and the country empty, and its Kings gone — 


1”? 


hence! 


To neglect poetry means more. It is to lose the most beau- 


tiful gems of the Bible, the Psalms, especially the Shepherd 
Psalm, the magnificent passages of Isaiah, most of the 
Proverbs, book after book in the Old Testament, and page © 
after page in the New Testament. To see no value in poetry 
is to deny the beauty of most of the glorious words of 
Jesus. For the cadences of his lyrical voice must have been 
as sweet as any singing; and when we turn to our Sermon 
on the Mount we find it is nothing else but a sublime poem, 
the most exalted spiritual poem ever uttered. How those 
words must have trembled with a divine sweetness when — 
first they fell from the lips of the Master of all poets: 


“Consider the lilies how they grow, they toil not neither do 
they spin ; 

Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat and what ye 
shall drink; 

Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth ... but lay up 
treasures in heaven. ... 

Ask and ye shall receive; seek, ye shall find; knock, it will 
be opened unto you... . 

Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be 


1”? 


added unto you! 


34 





SECRETS OF HAPPINESS IN THE NEW DAY [II-m] 


Why are these simple words quoted on all tongues, in- 
scribed today in countless books, chanted in many cathedrals, 
and inscribed, from childhood, upon innumerable hearts? 
Because in them we find enshrined the simplest and most 
beautiful truth. And because, as a vase filled with old rose 
petals keeps its fragrance, these simple words carry with 
them as in a chalice the glow and beauty and power of Jesus. 


II 


At the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount we find 
the most striking words of the whole message. It is as if the 
Master were trying to gain the instant attention of the crowd. 
It is as if he would say some word of tender hope and loving 
faith, at the very outset to relax and uplift their minds. “He 
beginneth not with obscure definitions ... but he cometh to 
you with words set in delightful proportion ... with a tale 
which holdeth children from play and old men from the chim- 
ney corner!” And truly these winsome words must have held 
every hearer in the grip of an intense interest: 


“Happy are ye when your soul is empty unto God that the 
kingdom of heaven may fill it; 

Happy are ye who have passed through sorrow, for truer and 
deeper will be your peace; 

Happy are ye who are meek, for you shall win a world of 
friendship ; 

Happy are ye who long for a good life, your achievements 
shall be great; 

Happy are ye who are tenderhearted, for you shall know love 
and affection; 

Happy are ye who have pure hearts, for you shall have 
spiritual sight; 

Happy are ye who bring peace in the world, ye shall be called 
princes of good-will; 

Happy are ye who suffer unpopularity and hardship now in 
a good cause, the kingdom of joy will come in your 
hearts. 

Happy are ye who suffer insult and vile treatment and cruel 
slander in the service of humanity and truth. The secret 
of all true happiness is yours. For all true prophets 
have thus suffered before you.” 


35 


l 


[II-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE ~— a oe “4 
Jesus is here emphasizing the good attitudes (BE-ATTI- — 
TUDES) which empower life and bless it with true and 
permanent happiness. He classifies these attitudes into — 
personal and social groups, as they have influence either — 
in our own inward lives or in the lives of other 4 
people. : 
In the personal group, he places first the attitude of self- a 
renunciation. The poor in spirit are those who have utterly — 
emptied their hearts to a complete poverty of all self-will, — 
all selfishness, all stubbornness of heart. They are those 
who have become as limp as clay that the hand of God may ~ 
mold them as he will. They seek to be as clean as an © 
empty cup to be filled with the living: water of life. They — 
seek to be as receptive as a clean, white sheet of paper on ~ 
which God may inscribe his divine message. They long tosbe ~ 
as clear as a reed through which the breath of God may ~ 
make whatever sweet music he will. It is to be poor toward 
the pride and satisfaction of self that one may be rich in the 
power and peace which cometh from God. And in that con- — 
sists the kingdom of heaven. 
In the second place, he puts the attitude of subwisitennee mn n 
sorrow. Those who mourn are the sinners who are sincerely 
repentant, the invalids of earth who have passed through the ~ 
fire of wracking pain, the troubled of earth who have come ~ 
through great tribulation. They have washed their robes in ~ 
the refining experience of sorrow, and they have come through ~ 
sweeter and stronger and with a deeper peace. We all know 
that is true to life. How many saints have crossed our path © 
whose lives were radiant with a sweetness that was born of — 
suffering and brought forth in sorrow. They have mourned, 
and through their mourning came a comfort like unto the 
dawning of a glad new day after the terrors of darkness ae 
the night! . 
Moreover, there is the attitude of longing for uprightness. 
‘Your gaining the good life, Jesus says, depends upon how — 
much you want it. A deep ‘and divine hunger must urge on — 
your soul; a profound thirsting, for the realization in your 
own life of the ideals of the higher life, must possess you. ~ 
It is not a craving for worldly recognition nor reputation. — 
It is a deliberate choosing of the achievement of character as~ 
life’s worthiest effort. The realest satisfaction life can 
36 rig. 































7 





SECRETS OF HAPPINESS IN THE NEW DAY [II-m] © 


give is prepared for those “who hunger and thirst after 
righteousness.” 

- Furthermore, Jesus says, another essential personal attitude 
is that of purity of heart. In the court of the Israelitish 
sanctuary, between the tabernacle and the altar, was a round 
brass vessel filled with water. It served for the washing of 
the hands and feet of the priests before they went into the 
tabernacle, and was called the laver. Jesus was saying that 


outward washing was not enough. Men may be clean out- 


wardly, but what good is it if inwardly they are foul and 
dirty? Hearts that would know God must be washed abso- 
lutely and utterly clean of all ill-will, of all lust and pride 
and spite and malice and secret fault. How can you expect, 
‘said Jesus, to have spiritual sight when the windows of your 
soul are unclean—windows that blind with the dirt of sin, 
and hamper spiritual vision with the grime of selfishness and 
‘falsehood? 

In the second group, which deals with social influence, 
we find first the attitude of meckness. Meekness is the 
gracious humility which “seeketh not its own.” It is that 
gentle, yielding virtue which is never aggressive for self. 
This quiet courtesy, remaining gentle under all approaches, 
is the thing that will inherit the earth, said the Master. That 
is exactly what we find to be true in nature. The lowly 
earthworm has inherited the earth in a way we least expect. 
Not a bit of vegetable mold is ground to fertility, not the 
slightest aération of the soil could take place without these 
humble creatures. All agriculture waits for their efforts, and 
so they are actually the head gardeners of the universe. 
Again, an excellent example is afforded by the animal king- 
dom. Savage animals, like the lion and the tiger and the 
hyena, gradually are exterminated from the earth, while the 


'meeker animals, the sheep, the cow, the horse, the dog remain 


as domestic friends of man and literally inherit the earth. 


Any Hindoo grandee can ride on his elephant and compel his 


slaves to cry “Bow the knee!” as the proud man passes. But 
no man can ride into the supremacy of the heart, can enthrone 
himself in love in the lives of other men, without meekness. 
The very stars in their courses fight against a man or a nation 


‘which out of pride and aggressiveness seeks to inherit the 


earth. The heritage of a universal supremacy awaits those 
: 37 


~ 3 ” _ 


“ [II-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAG&Z ; 
who walk the way of humility with him who was “meek and 
lowly of heart.” 

The second social grace is that of mercy. In olden days, 
mercy was identical with clemency, that which was offered 
to an inferior by one in a position of power. Frequently 
hard-heartedness was looked upon not as vice but as virtue. 
It was identified with strength and backbone. So we are not 
surprised to read in Shakespeare’s Richard III that the gallant — 
king addresses his friends, the murderers, in this fashion: 


“Your eyes drop millstones, where fools’ eyes drop tears, 
I like you lads!” 


Perhaps today we cannot match that. Our cruelty today is 
expressed largely toward animals and toward so-called crim-_ 
inals (notably in the form of capital punishment) ; and when — 
it is expressed toward our brothers and sisters it is usually — 
in the form of mental torture. There is, however, an 
elemental sense of tenderness in every heart. A hard-headed 
business man once told me the story of his first real grief. 
A new air rifle suggested a hunting expedition for birds. 
He crept up on a tame sparrow while it was feeding and shot - 
it. As he took it in his hands and saw the little, fluttering © 
life ebb away, a pang of sadness stabbed his heart. With 
bloody hands he dug a grave for the little bird and buried — 
it, and, there alone in the tall grass by the grave, he gave way - 
to the sobbing grief he could not withhold. A tenderness of 
the same pathetic kind is revealed in Burns’ beautiful picture 
of a bird in the storm: ; q 


| 






“Tlk happing bird, wee helpless thing, 
That in the merry months of spring 
Delighted me to hear thee sing, 
What comes o’ thee? 
Where wilt thou cower thy chittering wing 
And close thy ee?” 


All great minds have this depth of tenderness. Burns, per- 
haps because he possessed it to so remarkable a degree, has 
become the best beloved of the recent poets. Mercy begets 
mercy. Love invites love. 

38 ) : 


~ SECRETS OF HAPPINESS IN THE NEW DAY [II-m] 










The third social attitude is the attitude of the peacemaker. 

It is the attitude of the man who is always seeking to carry 

with him, not the spirit of strife and dissension, but the 

spirit which makes for quietness and understanding and peace. 

His is no errand of lies and ugly rumors and bitter gossip. 

His is no mission for the stirring up of angry hatreds and 
— reckless violence. All his words are truth spoken in love and 

all his ways are paths of stillness and peace. Whatsoever 
things are good, whatsoever things are honest, pure, just, true, 
- and of good report, he strives to think and talk and act on 
these things that the God of peace may dwell with men. 
Surely such a soul deserves the name: a very child of, the 
_ Father! 

_ Finally, Jesus emphasizes with two Beatitudes the results 
which will come into a man’s soul when he endures persecu- 
- tion and ill-treatment in the service of the truth. In all per- 
sonal hardship incurred from others by virtue of one’s own 
_ fidelity to the highest and best there will come a transcendent 
_ sense of joy and victory. It will be the same glorious experi- 
~ ence which has flooded the soul of every martyr, which has 
- transfigured the life of every true prophet since the world 
began. Such noble endurance will make one an eternal part 
of the great succession of the saints. It, will reveal the hidden 
key to happiness which is only found by those who loyally 
endure in a good cause. 

These, then, are the beautiful attitudes that lead like a 
ladder unto the heavenly life. These are the graces that 
bring personal hope and peace, and make society’s life sweeter 
and better: self-lessness, soul-comfort refined in sorrow, the 
~meek and lowly heart, the strong yearning for goodness, tender 
- compassion, the clean and single soul, reconciling good-will, 

patient loyalty. These are the shining colors of the soul’s 
rainbow, painted by the Master artist of the spirit with words 
new and clear and compelling. No wonder little children love 
to lisp them and old men spend hours trying to plumb their 
depths. They give us the picture of the ideal life! 


III 


If we see more deeply than the surface, we shall find the 
Beatitudes are nothing but the statement of a rigid law 
: 39 


[II-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE ’ 


which lies at the basis of the world. It is a law which 
in its workings is as remorseless as gravitation. “T do not 
“believe in the Judgment Day,” says a young questioner, cL 
do not see how all our actions, thoughts, words and motives 
can be checked up.” But the judgment day is not in the 


future; the judgment day is NOW, TODAY, and the stenog-. 


rapher who checks up our records in the book of life is not 
an angel in the sky, but this abiding and everlasting law of 
compensation. God does not punish or reward us at some 
future time. Every action registers its blessing or curse upon 
the life, now, immediately! “Whatsoever a man soweth, that 
shall he reap” right now! “He that exalteth himself shall be 
humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted” 


right now! “They that take the sword shall perish by the_ 


sword” not in the future but now! “All things are double,” 
says Emerson, in his fine essay on Compensation, “one 
against another. Tit for tat; an eye for an eye; a tooth for 
a tooth; blood for blood; measure for measure; love for love. 


Give, and it shall be given you. He that watereth shall be — 


watered himself. ‘What will you have?’ quoth God, ‘pay for 
it and take it’. Nothing venture, nothing have. Thou shalt 
be paid exactly for what thou hast done, no more, no less. 
Who doth not work shall not eat. _Harm hatch, harm catch. 


Curses always recoil on the head of him who imprecates— 


them. Put a chain around the neck of a slave, and the other 
end fastens itself around your own. Bad counsel confounds 
the adviser. The Devil is an ass!” 

Put it in clearer words. Justice is just the way this uni- 
verse acts. It gives you what you give. As certainly as if 


you should press a button to ring a bell or flash a light so 


quickly does this world respond to your every sign. Let us 


here state the opposites of Jesus’ Beatitudes, and let us notice - 


from our knowledge of human life how inevitable are these 
other results: 


“Woe to the selfish; the kingdom of darkness is theirs. 
Woe to the callous-hearted; comfort cannot be theirs. 
Woe to the proud; they shall lose everything at last. 
Woe to the indifferent toward uprightness; they shall not 
know real joy. 
Woe to the hard-hearted; love shall not come to them. | 
40 


SECRETS OF HAPPINESS IN THE NEW DAY [II-m]J 


Woe to the unclean of heart; they are blind to the best. 

Woe to the strifemakers; they are called children of the devil. 

Woe to those who are flattered and coddled and praised 
falsely ; they know they’ve lost. heaven, for that is always. 


the fate of the false!” 


We have been blaming our misfortune on the world outside, 
when all the while it issues from the world inside our hearts. 
Underlying the Beatitudes there is this fundamental phi- 
losophy: to be loved we must be lovable, to be happy we must 
give happiness, to know sunshine it must spread from the 
center of our own systems, and to be blessed, in the highest 
sense, we must bless the world! No one has ever expressed. 
this law in clearer terms than Margaret Sangster: 


“This world of ours is an even place, 
That, like a mirror, reflects a face 
As it really is. So if you will smile 
You will find that happiness all the while 
Will follow vou. And if you must frown 
You'll see the mouth of the world droop down. 


“Just what we give we take away, 
Whether it’s joy or work or play; 
Whether it’s fear or eternal youth; 
Whether it’s falsehood or gleaming truth; 
Whether it’s gladness or pain and dread; , 
Whether it’s hope or an aching head. 


“Just what you plant you will gather in, 
And if the harvest you take seems thin, 
You’ve most yourself to blame; the earth 
Is always ready to give you mirth! 
So, smile up into the morning’s face, 
And remember, this world is an even place!” 


IV 


_ A strange fact, however, is connected with this pursuit of 
the ideal life. When a man discovers the light and begins: 
res 





[II-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE "ee 


to follow it with all the fidelity and earnestness at his com- 
mand, immediately there arises a growing opposition. Often, 
the very folk he thought would bid him godspeed are those 
who seem bent on loading his path with obstacles. An in- 
evitable unpopularity in the world seems to be the fate of 
every soul that embarks on-a life of ruthless righteousness. 


A prophet and a true Christian are liable to be without- 


honor in any country and in any generation. This may be 


due to misunderstanding or to jealousy. But usually it is a 


because the mass resents a man’s being different; undedicated 
lives in the presence of a dynamic, decisive, consecrated life 


are conscious of an indirect rebuke! . This Jesus expects for — 


himself and for his disciples, for two of his Beatitudes are 


concerned with the way to meet this antagonism and oppo- 


sition. 
Not otherwise has been the continued experience of most 


of the heroic men and women who have lived ideally for 
humanity and truth. There is Strauss, honestly striving to F 
create a true and living likeness of the historical Jesus, and — 


~~ 


adding in his preface these words, “I know very well what 


sort of reception I have to expect ...and stand prepared — 


for every sort of demonstration of ill-will, from supercilious 


silence and scornful disparagement down to accusations of — 
blasphemy and sacrilege.’ Here is Woodrow Wilson, offer-— 
ing up the best ardor of his fine life in an utterly unselfish — 


effort to stem the horrible tide of war, yet struck down 


by the hate of his own countrymen and dying with a broken — 


heart. Here is William Booth, praying in the streets of 
Nottingham while still a boy with the men and women of 


the streets who were to be the forerunners of the Salvation 


Army, yet pelted with mud and sticks and stones by a rowdy, 
jeering mob! Here is our Lincoln assassinated, and here is 
our Joan of Arc burned! Here are Hugh Latimer, John Huss 


and Savanarola, and thousands of others, who like Peter and ~ 
Paul, Jeremiah and Jesus were followers of a light that led 


unto bitter death. 


Live like a prophet, and you will know no primrose path — 
of praise and popularity. It is a way of revilement and ~ 


reproach and bitter persecution; but it is a way which leadeth 


through death unto life. Whosoever liveth these Beatitudes — 
. must go the way of all the faithful... “stoned, sawn — 


42 








SECRETS OF HAPPINESS IN THE NEW DAY [II-m] 


asunder, tempted, slain with the sword; wandering about in 
goatskins—destitute, afflicted, tormented—of whom the world 
is not worthy.” Like Jesus, with no place to lay his head, 
mocked, rejected, and crucified, the radiant idealist will find 
bitter desserts from the world. But in all the anguish of 
heart, in the hardest hour of suffering, in the bitterest mo- 
*ment of the soul’s scourging there will dawn a gladness, a 
heavenly peace, which all the prophets before have known. 


“Think not there is one Calvary alone 
Nor say the soul of truth but once can die; 
_In every age the mob cries ‘Crucify!’ 
In every age the Pharisees are known. 
Who pleads for truth must face the cynic lie, 
Must know the martyr’s fiery agony, 
In every age till wrong be overthrown! 


“There is a Lincoln statue down the way, 
And men beside it gather old and gray, 
Seeing forgotten years as old men can. 
‘In every age,’ says one, ‘God finds His man!’ 
‘God’s man?’ the other answers, ‘man’s man too! 
But how they hated him before they knew!” 


V 


No one can read these Beatitudes of Jesus without recog- 
- nizing that they are a very keen analysis of life. The word 
“blessed” is evidently intended to convey the idea of happi- 
ness, but a spiritual happiness, a permanent type of happiness! 
If Jesus could come into our world today he would not frown 
on those who are searching for happiness. He here recog- 
nizes the legitimacy of such a quest. He gives us here the 
heart of his religion, and it is no gloomy religion. It is a 
religion whose very goal is the highest happiness, and whose 
very advocate must have smiled joyfully as he spoke. Only 
- Jesus is tremendously concerned that men shall not go a-run- 
ning after will o’ the wisp pleasures that end in dust and — 
ashes, after rosy-hued satisfactions that lead but to death 
and destruction, 


43 


[II-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE ae 


If he could come back today and stand in our churches, 
and on our street corners, and in our homes, he would say 
to us this: You are looking for happiness and that is right, 
for happiness is of God, and true happiness is life’s noblest 
gift. But you are going in the wrong direction; you must 
tight-about face. You are ever seeking and seeking and not 


finding because you are seeking your joy in things outside - 


yourselves; you think of happiness as consisting in the pos- 
session of certain things, in the physical enjoyment of certain 
pleasures; you think of it as certainly in some far-away place 


or some far-away time. But all the while what you seek 


is within your own heart. If you base your hope of happi- 
ness on things or physical pleasures, or put it off in imagina- 
tion to a distant time or place, you will miss it entirely. Joy 
is not in questing but in realizing, not in pursuing but in 
unfolding. Have the right attitudes and heaven comes in 
your own heart now! 

Like Simon Paris in Hutchinson’s great novel, “One In- 
creasing Purpose,’ we come at last to learn that it is not con- 
ditions in the world outside us that are cursing us with 


despair and discouragement and unhappiness, but attitudes in — 


our own heart of hearts, and that when we come to realize 
that contentment and peace and happiness are the result of 
a purely spiritual condition, our entire lives are absolutely 
transformed! For the kingdom of heaven is here! It is right 
here. It is all about us waiting to be welcomed within, All 
we need to do is to open up the windows of our spirits and 
the sweet air of heaven and the healing sunshine of God will 


come in. Deep, deep down in our hearts’ depth will slowly 


come a peace, a joy, a love that knows no bounds, 


He who possesses heaven in his soul shall have a face as 


radiant as the beaming sun, his eyes shall shine like bright 
stars in the night, his very body shall give off a luster of light, 


and he shall go forth as one possessed with a mighty and - 


undying love for all creatures, for enemy and friend alike, 
for all God’s creation. It shall be as if again the Christ-soul 
dwelt in a man! And he shall show in reality what Mabie 
said of Lyman Abbott: “. .. the continuous disclosure of a 
beautiful spirit!” He shall go in company with Prince’s 
goodly fellowship: 7 


44 





_ SECRETS OF HAPPINESS IN THE NEW DAY [Iq] 


“Who are the blest? 
They who have kept their sympathies awake, 
And scattered joy for more than custom’s sake, 
Steadfast and tender in the hour of need, 
Gentle in thought, benevolent in deed, 
Whose looks have power to make dissension cease, 
Whose smiles are pleasant and whose words are peace; 
They who have lived as harmless as the dove, 
Teachers of truth and ministers of love: © 
Love for all moral power, all mental grace— 
Love for the humblest of the human race— 
Love for the tranquil joy that virtue brings— 
Love for the Giver of all goodly things ; 

3 True followers of that soul-exalting plan 
Which Christ laid down to bless and govern man.” 


Dear Father, give us the courage and the power to live our 
lives with the same sense of enjoyment, the same grace, the 
same clean heart, the same loving kindness, and the same 
blessed spiritual beauty that Jesus had. Let the kingdom of 
heaven come in our lives the way it came in His. Amen. 


LIFE QUESTIONS 


1. Put the Beatitudes in your own words. Can you think 
of any modern people who perfectly illustrate these qualities, 
all of them? Do you really believe that Jesus has correctly 
pictured for us here the ideal life? 

2. Phrase the opposites of the Beatitudes. Write down the 

- classes of people who illustrate these Mal-attitudes. 
3. Would society be improved very much if all were “poor 
in spirit’? How can one be happy and a mourner too, at one 
and the same time? Is meekness prominently exemplified in 
modern folks? Was Jesus really always meek? Name sev- 
eral great men noted for their meekness of spirit. What is 
-your definition of righteousness? Is the state merciful when 
it electrocutes a murderer? Name some of the things the 
pure in heart must give up. Is the pacifist a peacemaker? 
What does Jesus actually mean by a “reward in heaven”? 

4. Can you word the Beatitudes in such a way as to show 
clearly the law of compensation upon which: they are based? 
45 





(i 


a 


Sas 
. 


Fads 


” 





PME ME 


[II-a) THE MASTER'S MESSAGE 7 


5. Do you yourself believe in a future or a present Judg- — 


ment Day? Are hell and heaven futtre states or present 
realities? Do you believe that the Beatitudes can be really 
lived? Always? Will the kingdom of God be established 
exactly in proportion to our practice of these ideals? 

6. “Happiness we never find except we dearly earn it.” Is 
happiness a gift or an achievement? 


7. “The real saint is* one who makes life happier for | 


others.”’. Which is more important: what you do for a friend, 
or what you are to him? 


8. What is the element in our experience of unjust perse-- r 


cution which makes it possible for us to exult as Jesus said 
we should? . . 

9. “Harmony with your environment is the secret of 
happiness.” Has Jesus given us in the Beatitudes a descrip- 
tion of the way one comes into harmony with the world and 
with God? 

10. Why was it that Jesus and many noble martyrs who 
lived the Beatitudes should have suffered violent death? Is 


the world ready for the living of a thoroughgoing spiritual 
ideal? 





a ee ee eee ae 


CHAPTER III 


Wholesome Living in 
the New Day 


DAILY READINGS 


Of ali the inescapable facts life teaches us none is more 
clear than this one—the dire importance of influence. There 
is at least this truth in the S-R bond theory of the psycholo- 
gists that all in the world may be explained by the interaction 
of stimulus and response: all which now we see in existence 
in the universe is the direct effect of some previous influence. 
Influence is utterly immortal. It is in the beginning and it 
is in the ending; it is the alpha, and it leads to the omega. 
Once influence has been started, you can no more stop it 
than you can crush sunlight or confine singing behind bars. 
“Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades,” the Lord 
asks Job, “or loose the bands of Orion?” (Job 38:31.) 


Third Week, First Day 


- The field is the world; the good seed are the children of 
the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked 
one.—Matt. 13:38. 


Every man, however humble his station in life, serves or 
disserves the cause of the kingdom. We may be utterly un- 
conscious of our exerted influence, but it is none the less 
real. As the rotten apple spoils its companion, so the bad 
life spoils its neighbor. As the rose fills the garden with 

47 





[III-2] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


perfume, so the good life blesses society. Either lifting or — 


pulling down, either injuring or repairing, either souring or 
sweetening, either scattering sunshine and happiness or sowing 


sorrow and gloom, so goes each person through the streets - 
of our world. No shameful sin, no bitter hatred is ever — 
entirely eliminated. No kindly deed, no sweet expression of 


love is ever quite lost. The common air of humanity must 
hold forever some odor of its evil or its good. ; 
Should this significant fact not give us pause? Should we 


not understand more keenly and respect more earnestly the 


warning words of George Eliot? “There is no sort of wrong 
deed of which a man can bear the punishment alone; you 
can’t isolate yourself, and say that the evil which is in you 


shall not spread. Men’s lives are as thoroughly blended as 
the air they breathe; evil spreads as necessarily as disease.” - 

Our field therefore is the world. We cannot avoid it. Seeds 7 
planted today are tomorrow’s harvest. On God’s acres we — 


are either good seed springing up to worthy fruitage, or evil 


weeds destined for destruction. When we think of the in- ~ 


evitability of influence, every hour of every day we ought to 


be sowing the seeds of blessing. For, as Lowell wisely remarks ql 


in his keen poem, 
9 


. . mankind are one in spirit, and an instinct bears along, 


wrong; 


Whether conscious or unconscious, yet Humanity’s vast frame _ 
Through its ocean-sundered fibers feels the gush of joy or 7 


shame; 
In the gain or loss of one race all the rest have equal claim,” 


Third Week, Second Day ; 


And it came to pass, that on the next day, when they were 


come down from the hill, much people met him. And, be- — 
hold, a man of the company cried out, saying, Master, I~ 


beseech thee, look upon my son: for he is mine only child. 


And, lo, a spirit taketh him, and he suddenly crieth; and it E 
teareth him that he foameth again, and bruising him hardly — 
departeth from him. And I besought thy disciples to cast 


him out; and they could not.—Luke 9:37-40. 
48 


Round the earth’s electric circle, the swift flash of right or 













WHOLESOME LIVING IN THE NEW DAY  [III-2] 


That old hero of modern missions, Dan Crawford, now 
recently entered into life indeed, tells of an experience: ‘Near 
the end of the year there died a famous old Livingstone Arab 
called Ali Masi. He and I have done thirty years together 
and only after many years did he confess Christ as the desire 
- of nations.... The long lapse of years looked the usual 
Arab death or ‘Christ-derision, but one day, standing under 
a palm tree (oh! happy day) you might have seen this Arab 
and myself clasped in an embrace, sobbing our souls out... .” 
What was it? Simply, one life of power had touched another 
and won it to a grand ideal! 

A life that does not do that is not very valuable. The life 
that inspires others is the great life. And in the story of our 
study today we see this fact strikingly revealed. The unruly, 
epileptic boy the disciples could not seem to help. But the 
sorrowing father has wonderful faith in Jesus: “Master, 
look upon my son.” He seems sure that if Jesus only looks 
upon the boy, he will be healed. We do not know exactly 
what was the matter with the boy but we can be very sure 
that what he needed was the electric contact with a confidence- 
inspiring life. And that Jesus gave! 

But our ignorant, unthrilling souls are no more like Jesus’ 
soul than the stony, rubbish-strewn streets of the lower East 
Side of New York are like the daisy-strewn meadows of 
Galilee. Some of our gloomy bishops, our dissipated priests, 
our noisy ministers, our worldly church people, and haughty 
clergy suggest the question: Why are these lives not exhibit- 
ing the quickening inspiration, the kindly eyes, the 
glowing countenance, the vivid spirit of the Master? Why 
are their lives unhealing like the lives of the earlier 
disciples? 

To the extent that we inspire others the way Jesus inspired 
men in his day may it be said that we are living life in the 
Christlike way. The words of Father Faber in his striking 
poem, “The Three Kings,” are a fine description of the influ- 
ence of Jesus: 


“One little sight of Jesus was enough for many years, 
One look at Him their stay and staff in the dismal vale of 


” 
tears. 4 


49 


[III-3] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE ————«S,:” 


Third Week, Third Day . 


And when he came into his own country, he taught them 
in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, 
and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these 
mighty works?—Matt. 13:54. 


There must, however, be an ample preparation for influence. 


Our intentions are often good, but our ability is inadequate. — 


How many desire to serve before they are prepared for the 
work! Sunday-school and day-school teachers trying to teach 


with insufficient training, ministers trying to preach out’ of 


shallow experience, artists, musicians, artisans working on 
defective instruction, may understand their small influence by 
discovering that their preparation-capital is low. 

For eighteen solid, painstaking years the Master trained. 
In shop, field, school, and home-he was preparing his soul 
for a magnificent purpose—and then the days of solitude 
alone, after weeks of earnest application in the circle of John 
the Baptist, crowned his peerless preparation. He paid the 
price for power! 

Notice too, the lumber of knowledge that fills a college 
- graduate’s head was not alone what he possessed. He pos- 
sessed knowledge that had kindled into the flame of wisdom 
by the spirit of God. His experience, his discernment, his 
reading, his praying, his study—all this was in a holy flame 
of enthusiasm. He was on fire with the flame of God’s love! 
Small wonder his townspeople asked: “Whence hath this 
man this wisdom, and these mighty works?” 

Frank Gunsaulus pays proper tribute to the right power in. 
preparation when he says in his poem, “A Word for Faith”: 


“The long-borne fagots ’neath my hard cold will 
Lie piled in order—yet are wet with rain. 
I looked to Thee, and prayed—am praying still. 
Flame of God’s love, wilt thou thy fire restrain? 
* * 2 * * * * 
“Still I believe my fagot-thoughts are shine— 
- Shine of the sun, packed close in warp and woof! 
While I am man, this memory divine 
Lives in my doubt and of the sun is proof.” e 
50 





« 





WHOLESOME LIVING IN THE NEW DAY [III-s] 


Third Week, Fourth Day 


For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that 
which was lost.—Luke 19:9. 


“That which was lost’—how many there are today who 
still come under the category “lost.” Not “lost” in the 
theological sense, but folks lost in the woods of perplexity, 
baffled by questions of life too deep for them to answer—how 
many such fill our society today! Lost in the ways of sin, 
struggling with the tides of evil with the battle going fast 
against them, they cry out from every clime for salvation that 
is the most real need on this earth. 

We also, like Jesus, we, the children of men, are endowed 
with life, not to neglect and destroy, but to seek and to save 
them that are lost. We must say these words of the Master. 
with their original meaning upon our hearts. There is present 
need abroad in the world, and one who receives inspiration 
and does not give any is a betrayer of the social heritage! 


“Have you found the heavenly light? 
Pass it on. 
Souls are groping in the night, 
Daylight gone. 
Hold thy lighted lamp on high, 
Be a star in someone’s sky, 
He may live, who else would die, 
Pass it on.” 


Third Week, Fifth Day 


“Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the 
kingdom of their Father.—Matt. 13:43. 


There ts no more striking authority in the field of personal 
influence than a holy and pure life! George Morrison, of Glas- 
gow, phrases this fact in telling words when he says: “I have 
no faith in any social service that springs from careless and 
unworthy character.” . 

This truth needs emphasis because so many of us are trying 
to ride the two horses of useful service and careless character. 

5I 
oo 


|) we oe 








[III-6] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 
On one side of our nature is this clear, earnest desire to be > 
of some worthy use in the world. On the other is the most ce 
common of human weaknesses, the negligent attitude which _ 
lets in the little spiritual germs that eat out the core of 
personality. The place to begin in preparing for influence is 
the center of life’s circle—our own souls. Holiness there will 
make for happiness everywhere. When you see one shine — 
like a sun in his influence, making thereby a kingdom of — 
good wherever he goes, you may be very sure he has won _ 
the victory of the life of righteousness. S: 
No one ever made more plain what this means than Jesus— 
for the purity of his inward life was the soul and secret ofa 
his service! This is what men refer to when they exclaim: 7 
“, .. when my Saviour touched my sight, 

My slumbering soul awoke in light, 
And since that day I’ve known no night!” 


Third Week, Sixth Day 


_ And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn — 
within us, while he talked with us by the way?—Luke 24:32. 


There is a transcendent power in example—that contagion — 
of the exalted spirit—which is strikingly illustrated in this a 
line from the gospel of Luke. To read these words is as if 
one heard the writer saying: Just to talk with the Master was _ 
an inspiration—his spirit glowed with such divine fire, that — 
just to be near him was enough to set aflame the coldest — 
or the dullest spirit! Bae: 

Great talking and much doing will leave little good influence — 
without this subtle force which springs out from the life that — 
is rich and beautiful with divine energies. One of the most — 
interesting instances of this is related concerning Saint Francis _ 
of Assisi. Brother Francis said one day to one of the young ~ 
monks at the Portiuncula, “Let us go down to the town to ia 
preach!” The novice, delighted at being singled out to be a 
the companion of Francis, obeyed with alacrity. They passed — 
through the principal streets, turned down many of the — 
byways and alleys, made their way out to the suburbs, and — 
at length returned by a circuitous route, to the monastery — 

’ 52 2 
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WHOLESOME LIVING IN THE NEW DAY [III-7] 


gate. As they approached it, the younger man. reminded 
Francis of his original intention. “You have forgotten, 
Father,” he said, “that we went to the town to preach!” 
“My son,” Francis replied, “we have preached. We were 
preaching while we were walking. We have been seen by 
many. Our behavior has been closely watched. It was thus 
that we preached our morning sermon. It is of no use, my 
son, to walk anywhere to preach unless we preach everywhere 
we walk!” 


‘Third Week, Seventh Day 


_ Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him 
shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall 
be in him a weil of water springing up into everlasting life. 
—John 4:14. - 


In our daily readings this week we have seen how impor- 
tant and inevitable influence is, how much high influence costs 
and how it is exerted. In our closing day for this week, let 
us note carefully influence’s immeasurability. The ripples 
round a stone thrown in the lake may reach to the uttermost 
shore. The song sent out upon the air may, as radio has now 
proven, still be sounding through the immeasurable chambers 
of space long after the singer has gone. 

In like manner one single ministry of kindness toward an- 
other life may prove in that life a never-ending benediction. 
This is what Jesus meant here in our passage for today: 
Let me once make arise m your soul the water of the spiritual 
life and it will be unto you and all you know as a spring of 
everlasting blessing. Dr. Jowett, the famous preacher, tells 
of an experience which well illustrates this. It was his first 
appearance before a congregation, and his greatest fear was 
‘the prayer: “Seated in the front row was a white-haired old 
man, one of the regular worshippers at the branch church. 
‘In the prayer with which I opened the service I heard a quiet 
response. It was from the old man. That response gave me 
confidence. It was like the strengthening breath of the Holy 
Spirit. Why not say it was the breath of the Holy Spirit? 
I can feel it now across the years. At a moment of great 
timidity I entered into the gracious strength of fellowship, 


53 


[IIJ-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE ve 


and the expressed spiritual sympathy of an unknown brother 
created an influence in the young preacher which I remember 


still with thankfulness and joy.’ As we contemplate the . 


enormous sway over the English-speaking world which Dr. 
Jowett has held for so many years with his peerless voice and 
his winsome books, how shall we ever measure the well of 
influence which sprang up out of that old man’s heart that day? 


MEDITATION ON THE MASTER’S THOUGHT 


Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his _ 
savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good ~ 


for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot 
of men. . 

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an 
hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put 
it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light 
unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine be- 


fore men, that they may see your good works, and glorify 4 


your Father which is in heaven.—Matt. 5:13-16. 


We have here the explanation of Jesus concerning the way 


influence works. In the Beatitudes he has boxed the compass - 


of character. There he has painted the portrait of the ideal 
leader in human society. Now this life, he is saying, has a 


definite influence in this world, and that influence works like 
salt and light. The best leadership of human society he. 


describes as a preservative, permeative quality like that of salt, 
and an outgoing, luminative function like that of light. The 
one is the subjective influence, the other the objective. The 
one is useful in that it loses its identity, the other in the sense 


that it keeps its identity. The ideal person pictured in the | 


Beatitudes is a person with saving power and lighting power. 
In this keen analysis of the place of ennobled living in the 
bringing of the better day, Jesus is careful to drive home the 
fact that the good life is by no means neutral, functionless, or 
indifferent. It is a life justifying its existence by the fact of 
rendering service that is indispensable. 


I 
To whom is Jesus speaking when he says: “Ye are the salt 
of the earth’? To the disciples? Yes. And to all these 
54 


ye 


47” ee) Pas yay 
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ge ere rs ee 





aN a 
mA a 


as 
Soe 





ETE 


WEEE DERI 


WHOLESOME LIVING IN THE NEW DAY [III-m] 


who are willing to pay the price to gain the blessed life. He 
describes their influence as that of salt and light. Let us see, 
then, first of all, what the inherent properties of sali are. 
Salt is a compound of two highly poisonous elements, 
sodium and chlorine. The balanced compound formed by the 
union of these two elements, so dangerous in their pure 
state, is one of the most useful and widely disseminated sub- 
stances known. It not only exists in abundant deposits in 
the earth but exists in solution in the ocean. There its heal- 


ing properties are well known to bathers. Salt is of the 


- 


utmost importance in most forms of chemical manufacture, 
finds wide use for cleansing purposes, is an indispensable sea-. 
soning for food, and is frequently used in the preserving of 
meats. Its uses have been many in mankind’s history. In 
extreme functions as a standard of value and as a sacred 
substance to be sprinkled on the holy fires of ancient temples 
it has been employed. The fact that Homer calls it “divine” 
may indicate that to the peoples of antiquity (and of course 
in Jesus’ day) it had a significance which we of today have 
not bestowed upon it. 

For a man, therefore, to be rightly called “the salt of the 
earth’ he must provide in society the functions which salt 
provides in its everyday uses. As an antiseptic halts the 
action of deadly germs, the influence of his life must coun- 
teract the decaying evils in society. As a perfume or a sea- 
soning permeates all that is close to it, sweetening and cleans- 
ing and improving, so must his life give wholesomeness to 
all the area of existence about him. As the unit used for a 
divinely respected measure of value secures the recognition of 
all men, so his life by its unquestionable virtue must present 
a standard of honor. As incense fills the sanctuary with its 
healing and inspiring odor, so his work is to leaven earth with 


‘something of divine sweetness, as Browning says in his poem, 


“Of Pacchiarotto”: 


“Man’s work is to labor and leaven— | 
As best he may—earth here with heaven!” 


But what if this salt loses its flavor, becomes insipid, stale, 


flat? What if the power that makes wholesome, halts dis- 


ease, provides cleansing and a standard of value, should be © 


25 


[I1I-m] THE MASTER'S MESSAGE may 


lacking? What then? Wherewith shall human society be 
salted? Under such conditions, the question answers itself. 
Society must become corrupt, decadent, unwholesome, disease 
stricken, A society without its saving salt is a good-for- 
nothing society, certainly scheduled for a tragic end. As 
worthless salt is thrown into the gutter where men walk upon 
it and crush it beneath their heels, so worthless social groups 
are trampled to inevitable annihilation by advancing, law- 
abiding time. Rome, Babylon, Sodom, Gomorrah—one can 
name historic proofs. What nation will give us modern 
illustration? 


Il 


Once Henry Drummond in one of his masterful addresses 
suggested that life was likened to a mirror receiving reflec- 
tions, that when people looked into our faces they saw re- 
flected there a precise image composed of every influence 
that had entered our lives. If this is true (and who may 
deny it?) with what care should we hold up this mirror to 
experience. For our mirror is either an asset or a liability in 
the world; influences are interchangeably reflected! Each one 
of us changes the faces of those nearest for good or for 
evil. Character then is important. A ponderous volume 
called “The Whole Duty of Man” was, during the last cen- 
tury, considered indispensable to a clergyman; but Dr. Henry 


Van Dyke said that God condensed the whole duty of man 


into just one word: SALT! 

If we can prove that the whole duty of man is encom- 
passed in that one phrase, the development of character, we 
shall be able to meet the world’s most vital present need and 
contribute a new meaning to the education of the human race. 


That this contribution is now of paramount importance may be 


gleaned from the simple fact that for three hundred years one 
general theory of education has held the center of the stage, 
the theory that education was not an ethical nor a religious 
matter, but a matter of science. There have been outstanding 
exceptions to this general rule, but, by and large, when 
a teacher entered his classroom he had in mind just 
one central aim: the teaching of facts, not the impartation 
of life. 

Now, of course, our theory of education may depend upon 

56 


, bs 
a” aw Oe. 





WHOLESOME LIVING IN THE NEW DAY [III-m] 


just what we think a school or a college is. It certainly 
ought not to be only a lumber yard of learning where students 
come to load their minds, or a dreamland of amusement where 
boys and girls come to be entertained, or a social ladder where 
certain elect individuals get the chance to climb up from their 
brothers to a more comfortable position in the sun. The 
school may be, perhaps, a place where we learn how to study. 
But there is, or ought to be, a still deeper purpose behind it 
all: a place to-learn living! Prophets of the new dawn in 
education are everywhere seeing the new light. Thus, Pro- 
fessor Tassin of Columbia remarks: “It is an old-fashioned 
idea that students are sent to college to study. They are 
sent to meet the right people.’ And a committee of Dart- 
mouth students, organized and appointed to study education 
from the viewpoint of the undergraduate, have this to say 
of the faculty: “Aside from capability as a teacher and 
profundity as a knower, there are those who lack that third 
characteristic of the ideal teacher—those elusive yet vital 
traits of character which make us say that this man com- 
mands our respect.’ Ex-president Hadley of Yale indicates 
the way the wind is blowing in both church and school when 
he says: “All the moral precepts which are taught are of 
little consequence as compared with the personality of these 
teachers themselves.” 

An illustration of the ideal teacher for the new day might 
be offered in the person of Henry Drummond, a thorough- 
going scientist in his thinking, yet of the finest moral char- 
acter, and possessed of a winsome personality. The quality 
of his influence may be gleaned from the words of J. H. 


Jowett: “Drummond manifestly sweetened the atmosphere 


got 


of the university and introduced a deeper and more serious 
moral tone. . . . His influence remains in my life as a bright 
impulse to purity and truth....I thank God that I ever 
met and communed with Henry Drummond.” 

There may be a thousand theories of education; there may 
be armies of teachers in our schools, faithful even to what 
they think their work may be. But there will be little true 
teaching unless the spiritual instinct is allowed full play. A 
soul diffusing personal power through every movement and 


glance of the eye, a soul so true that truth is its breath and 


life, that is the “salt of earth” that is needed supremely in 
57 


(Iltm] << THE-MASTER'S MESSAGE 6 ae ae 


teaching; but also, wherever heart meets heart. Horatius 
Bona: tells us the way to be salt-providers of society, especially 
parents, preachers, teachers: 


“Thou must be true thyself, 

If thou the truth wouldst teach; 
Thy soul must overflow 

If thou another’s soul wouldst reach; 
It needs the overflow of heart 

To give the lips full speech.” 


Iil 


The most fascinating and suggestive illustration of the way — 


spiritual influence operates, Jesus selects from the example 


of light. His ideal followers and friends are, he says, to be 


like lights in the world. The beneficial effect of their lives 
is to be equivalent to the shining of the sun in the world, 


and this shining unto good works will testify of the Spirit A 


which is within them. 

But just what is light, and how does it work? The 
physicist might answer in his formal definition: “. . 
dulatory activity produced and propagated in all directions 


from a luminous body in the particles of an elastic, impon- 


derable medium called the luminiferous ether at a velocity 
of about 186,000 miles per second!” But Jesus’ idea of what 
light is, while it might not pass muster in a physics quiz in 
college, nevertheless, is a truer idea because it is based upon 


what light does. And anything is more truly known when £ 
we see what it does. Jesus’ idea of light is a more satisfying 
one than the dry, meaningless definition of the physicist be- — 


cause it gets back to first principles, it goes back to the 
source of light, the sun. 


Now the sun is one of the most glorious realities of our <a 
universe. Without it there could be no life at all, no green 


meadows, no ripening corn, no placid streams, no blue skies. 


This gorgeous orb of light and power, millions of miles apart — 
from us yet never absent day nor night, with its maelstrom — 
of fiery metal at a temperature of three million degrees 
Fahrenheit, holding in celestial order all of our planetary — 


system, this golden luminary of dazzling splendor is the ey 
58 


etl Ste 








WHOLESOME LIVING IN THE NEW DAY [III-m] 


source of our physical existence. It dawns over the world, - 
dispelling shadows, fogs, glooms. Rainbows are its messen- 
gers of cheer, sunbeams are its children of healing and 
purification. All growing plants lift glad leaves to its heavenly 
shower, and every spring of wonder tells of its power. Every 
sparkling ray stores up its pulsing life in leaf and branch 
and fruit and flower. Every fire on a cold night, every 
steam engine crossing the country with its precious freight, 
every moving motor car, every whirring machine derives its 
power from the stored sunshine of measureless geologic ages. 
The myriad chemic and electric energies, which produce all 
our comforts, come from that infallible provider,» the sun. 

The insight of Jesus, however, into the way spiritual light 
works is founded on a keener appreciation of sunlight than 
a tabulated list of the sun’s blessings will show. It is not 
widely known that the diffusion of light in our world is due 
to the reflection of the rays of the sun from the fine particles 
in the air, from the clouds, and from all the objects on the 
earth. If it were not for the particles of dust in the air which 
catch the rays of sunlight, and become in themselves miniature 
suns, our world would not be full of light but full of dark- 
ness. Is this not a good hint as to what Jesus implied when 
he said that the ideal man would be like a light shining in 
the world? By “shining before men’ he does not mean that 
we are to make proud parade of our light. It is to be a 
shining where it will help most, but also a shining that comes 
only as it reflects a fragment of the larger light of the 
spiritual world. Some people think they shine of themselves. 
They thrust the glaring torches of their egotistical luminosity 
into the face of the world, and repel rather than attract. 
But the true lightbearer knows his light is derived. Your 
oil lamp, gas lamp, candle or electric light simply burns by 
virtue oi releasing its store of sunlight. Your sunbeam 
sparkles with reflected light. So behind and around and 
below all our shining are the great exhaustless resources of 
the living God, the Father of spiritual lights. 

So there is no spiritual light within us which does not 
come from God, and all our shining is but his life made 
manifest in us. This is what Paul means when he describes 
our souls as temples of the living God, altars where the 
divine Fire has been kindled with his love. And Jesus is 


59 


[III-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE as 


dealing with the same symbolism when he says in his Sermon 
on the Mount: “Let the light in your soul, your spark of 
divinity, your inherent spirituality, so shine through you that 
it may be radiated to the world... blessing others with 
many good effects . . . so that men, seeing the great light in 
your soul, may recognize and understand and glorify the spirit 
of God who is really shining in you.” 


IV 


When this light shines from the soul of man it has, first 
of all, guiding power. Have you ever been utterly in the 


dark and then suddenly a fine pin-point of gleaming bright-— 


ness revealed your path? How inspiring and helpful lights 
are in the darkness! Charles Dickens, in “Little Dorrit,” 
has a descriptive passage which, in a homely way, tells the 
story: “He was passing at nightfall along the Strand, and 
the lamplighter was going on before him, under whose hand 
the street lamps, blurred by the foggy air, burst out one after 
another, like so many blazing sunflowers, coming into full- 
_blow all at once.” There are such things as dangerous fogs 
and hours of darkness when there must be a light upon our 
path, when the headlights of our automobiles must be on the 
road lest the car and its occupants plunge to destruction. 
Especially is light needed when one travels on the water. 
How fascinating are the varicolored lights which add their 
splashes of brightness to the placid water on a summer’s 
night! But more important still is the gleam that comes from 
the lighthouse—a beam from aloft, by which the vessel steers 
safely by the roaring reefs and rocks. At prayer meeting, 
I once heard a venerable old deacon of eighty honorable years 
tell how an experience which he had had years before in 
the English channel revealed to him the meaning of the 
words of that hymn “Let the Lower Lights Be Burning.” 
The night was extremely foggy, and while the upper lights 
of the lighthouses were visible, the lower lights locating the 
reefs were unlit, and it was not until those lights gleamed 
out clearly that the vessel could steer safely into dock. 
Most of us are not permitted to be huge lighthouses on life’s 
shore, but even though we be only lower lights, ours is an 
important responsibility. If our personal beam be dark, dire 
60 





WHOLESOME LIVING IN THE NEW DAY [III-m] 


consequences may be the result in some pilgrim soul which, 
in a critical moment, looks toward our life for guidance. 
Emily Dickinson had a great light in her soul. Her poem isa 
bit of biography which reveals a fine form of spiritual 
ambition : 


“They might not need me, yet they might! 
Tl let my light shine just in sight, 
This tiny beam of mine might be 
Precisely their necessity.” 


V 


Moreover, when a man’s soul becomes a focal point for 
the powerful spiritual radiance of God, he possesses what we 
may call gladdening power. Frequently puzzling failures 
appear. ‘Men, whom perhaps we knew at college as leaders, 
possessing every educational advantage, giving great promise 
in their chosen careers, suddenly in the midst of outward 
opulence stand weak and ineffective and powerless. What 
does this mean? They are unlighted candles. Their lives 
lack that luminous, gladdening power which is the consuming 
fire of God. They are like beautiful lamps, finely wrought 
and filled with fragrant oil, but all dark, because never has 
the divine spark touched them. So many lights are out, 
leaving their world dreary, disappointing, But there is hope. 
All they need is the Divine kindling! 

The ancient physicians, from Hippocrates downward, had 
a strange theory about the human constitution. They believed 
it had four cardinal “humours”: first, there was blood, then 
phlegm or indolence, then bad temper or choler, and lastly, 
melancholy. The doctor’s business in those days was to 
eliminate these evil humors. One of their methods of treat- 
ment was a forty days’ sun-bath in the warm rays of the 
midsummer sun. Bad temper and indolence and melancholy 
still infect human nature, and one of the finest benedictions 
we can bestow is to shine on these needy lives with our glad- 
ness, changing their ailments into rejoicing with the sunshine 
of our indomitable cheerfulness. For what greater duty 
have we toward our fellow creatures than to show them 
the shining face? Dour despondency is a desperate sin; and 

61 


[I11-m] THE MASTER'S MESSAGE i, 


no virtue is more commendable than a spirit of good cheer. 
Let us away, then, with all bilious theologies and hypochon- 
driac religions. They are poisons, deadly and dangerous. 
Until I have found a religion that makes my face glow. with 
gladness, until I have found a word with gracious sunshine in 
it, I have no right to speak. “The supreme prayer of my 


heart,” said Elbert Hubbard (and well might it be the prayer 


of innumerable dour churchmen), “is not to be learned, rich, 


famous, powerful or even ‘good, but simply to be radiant!” . 


Ah! that is the virtue of all really worth while faith—to be 
radiant! 

A traveler in the west tells us that he stood one day in a 
somber forest, surrounded by snow-covered mountains. The 
scene was buried in a gray and awful gloom, for the sun 
was hidden behind the clouds. Then suddenly he stood in 
breathless wonder and adoration, as the sun poured out in 
overpowering splendor, transfiguring the scene with its bril- 
liant rays, until the cold, repelling glaciers on the mountain- 
side became sparkling seas of nature’s diamonds, and the 
somber forest became a lighted cathedral flecked with lovely 
sunlight. The stern, steel-colored sky became painted with 
exquisite hues in the west and a brilliant blue overhead, 
while the crests of the mountains shone like polished silver. 
That is the way our spiritual shining can gladden life. When 
God’s spirit shines through us upon the sorrowful things 


they become touched with a radiance of joy. Most church. 


windows are a mass of meaningless forms until the sunlight 
floods them in morning or evening, and then how they shine 
with beauty. A rainstorm is an unpleasant experience until 
the sun shines through—then the rainbows! 


VI 


Light, this indispensable phenomenon of our universe, 


affords not only, in its spiritual manifestation, the guiding 
power of a shining example and the gladdening power of a 


tadiant spirit, but also the melting power of creative love. 
There are many folks in our world whose lives have grown 
cold and hard with an icy sterility of life. Perhaps their 
souls have been frozen by the chilly north winds of indiffer- 


ence, hatred, or uncompromising malice. Perhaps frosty 


62 


} 
: p Tate! ¢ is 
att 
Se ee eae ee, ee ee 





_ WHOLESOME LIVING IN THE NEW DAY [I-m] 


crusts of sorrow and bitter trouble have gathered over their 
spirits. There they wait in darkness and doubt for some 
loving life to dawn upon them like a warm sun. 

Dryden speaks of pity that “melts the mind to love’; but 
the power that melts the frozen soul is something more than 
pity. It is a power that spends itself sympathetically to create 
and inspire. It is a power that closely resembles the force 
of the sun when it transforms the sterile earth in spring to 
a burst of bloom. It was such a power in the great preacher, 
Phillips Brooks, which made people say of him: “There is 
a warmth and life and inspiration and truth from his lips 
that I have not found elsewhere,” and which brought from 

- Principal Tulloch of Aberdeen, who heard Brooks preach in 
the spring of 1874, these words of tribute: “I have just 
heard the most remarkable sermon I ever heard in my life— 
so much thought and so much life combined; such a reach of 
mind, and such a depth and insight of soul. ...I was elec- 
trified.... I could have got up and shouted!” That power 
to electrify the soul of another, to quicken it, inspire it into 
fresh and beautiful creative experiences—that is what spiritual 
light can do. And we are not without those who possess it 
in our own day. Not so long ago in one of New York 
City’s greatest churches a visitor could have seen a strange 
and wonderful sight: lower and upper chapels, vestibule, 
lobby, pulpit, and pulpit steps, the closes at the sides of the 
church, and every pew jammed with people; and outside 
-beneath the windows and near the open doors, and even in 
the Sunday-school rooms, men and women crowding to hear 

_ the voice of a man who stood in the pulpit. If one inquired, 
he was told in glowing words: “Dr. Fosdick is preaching!” 

And if we could count the men and women, young and old, 

_ throughout the English-speaking world, who have found their 
April of the spirit under the melting power of Dr. Fosdick’s 
creative light, we should find their number to be legion! It 
was precisely the same potency of spirit in Eleanora Duse, 

_ the famous actress, which brought such praise as we hear 

on the lips of Stark Young: “She gave you the sense of 

_ being taken as no mere individual, but as that something in 

yourself that was immortal. . . . Duse had, as no other artist | 
of her time, a quality that touched in others the springs of 
creative life!” 

is 63 





id 


[III-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 

After all, isn’t this service of inspiring creativity in others 
one of the finest’ services one can render? Isn’t it when we 
shine meltingly with spiritual light that we really help people 
most? The missionary may go out to the so-called heathen, 
and teach decorated doctrines and fancy religious frills until 
he is blue in the face, but if he gives no warm shining of 
tender, sympathetic love, he fails. The doctor may go to 
his sick room with his assorted pills and prescriptions, but 
unless he gives a certain shining confidence, a warm hope and 
friendly sympathy, the patient is never truly healed. The 
teacher may go to the school-room with ever so many text- 
books and blackboards and prepared lectures, but without 
the radiating power of a beautiful and effective personality, 
all these shall fail, The mother may try to guide her children, 
but if she has only rules to offer, punishments to mete out, 
and board and room to give, that mothering is a failure. 
Children may need these things; but much more they need 
the wise heart-to-heart counsel, the steady light of sympa- 


thetic love, the warm power of cheerfulness, and the gladness — 


of creative impulse. 

In the presence of most facts of everyday experience it 
becomes increasingly easier to understand why Jesus said, 
“Let your light so shine .. .”; and why, in one of our most 
beautiful Bible passages, an ancient seer phrased the same 
advice in unforgettable language: “They that are wise shall 
shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn 


many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.” — 


(Daniel 12: 3.) 
VII 


God has made every one of us to be some kind of a light 


and to do some sort of shining. But the effectiveness and 
the value of our particular light depend upon its position. 
Light is light, of course, but if the light is hidden how can 
it shine?. The home in which Jesus was reared probably 
consisted of but one room, lighted by an oil lamp placed on 
a projecting stone of the wall. Perhaps he had seen some- 
one place a bushel over it and had marked the deep darkness 
that followed. Perhaps on some gloomy evening, coming 
home late from one of his solitary jaunts, he had perceived 

64 . 


a 





we Teer ta? ee. 


WHOLESOME LIVING IN THE NEW DAY. [IlI-m] 


the twinkling lights of his home city and recognized the 
advantages of a city set on a hill. These homely memories 
later became his texts: the light that has been given to us 
should not be hidden under the bushel of selfishness or doubt 
or fear, but should be placed on a stand where its clear shin- 
ing may do its work; the life that has been given to us 
should not be hidden in a valley of low aims and purposes, 
but should be set on a high and holy hill of character where 
all may see and rejoice. 

Shakespeare has a penetrating passage which drives home 
this thought of Jesus with added emphasis: 


“Thyself and thy belongings 

Are not thine own so proper as to waste 
Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee. 
Heaven doth with us as we with torches do, 
Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues 
Did not go forth of us, ’twere all alike 

As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touched 
But to fine issues; nor Nature never lends 

The smallest scruple of her excellence, 

But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines 

Herself the glory of a creditor— 

Both thanks and use.” 

We are sons and daughters of the great All-Father, gifted 
with his mind, patterned after his image, blessed with his 
heart, and empowered with his will; and yet we do not 
glorify him as we should. Our light is often hidden, not 
because we deliberately hide it, but because we scarcely know 
that we have it. So often we are bashful before the very 
greatness of our divine endowments. We _ shrink from 
utilizing them to their full. The bushel that ruins the effec- 
tiveness of the light that is in us most frequently is the 
bushel of self-detraction. We are afraid to let our light 
brightly shine—afraid of what others may say, afraid of our 
own ability. We could be powerful lamps of guiding illu- 
mination, of gladdening brightness, and of inspiring creative 
love if we were out on a stand where men might see, but | 
we cuddle safe and aloof under our bushel in the corner. 
Francis Quarles’ lines are rebuking to many a cringing soul: 


65 


[III-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE apne 


“Why dost thou lurk so close? is it for fear 
Some busy eye should pry into thy flame, 
And spy a thief, or else some blemish there? 
Or being spied, shrink’st thou thy head for shame? — 
Come, come, fond taper, shine. but clear, 
Thou need’st not shrink for shame, nor shroud for fear. 


“Remember, O remember, thou wert set ; 
For men to see the great Creator by; 3 
Thy flame is not thine own: it is a debt 
Thou ow’st thy Master. And wilt thou deny 
To pay the interest of thy light? 
And skulk in corners, and play least in sight?” 


Vill 


For a holy-day celebration in a certain land sacred candles 
are manufactured with the greatest care. The bees which | 
make the wax are considered hallowed; gardens are filled 
with the sweetest flowers for them alone; the wax is gathered 
with consecrated hands; and the candles are shaped in chapel 
recesses in the attitude of prayer and to the intuning of 
psalms. These candles are destined for a high service; there- — 
fore, they must be prepared with the greatest possible care. 
Let us visit the cathedral church at Christmas time, where 
the loyal labor which has gone into these precious cylinders — 
of wax is to be rewarded. We enter the church at evening. — 
Perhaps outside the moonlight is very bright upon the winter’s 
snow. But within the church all is dim and dark. There is — 
no light anywhere. But around the great structure far up ~ 
in the gallery the candles encircle the cathedral. When all — 
are in and the time has come, a little child lights one end — 
of a fine taper, and swiftly from candle to candle around the © 
church runs a clear ribbon of throbbing, pulsating light, until 
every nave and gallery and recess and even the vast dome is — 
lit with a bright splendor. Jesus once said he had come to 
send a flame of fire through the earth. Has he not sent round 
the world from heart to heart a bright flame of spiritual — 
iumination which never will abate until the wide world — 
has been filled with its effulgent light? a 

Human society needs most of all this brilliance. Not neces- 

66 ae 


ee iON cock a Sell 1 i 







“> 


WHOLESOME LIVING IN THE NEW DAY [ItI-q] 


sarily intellectual brilliance, not social brilliance nor business 
brilliance, nor any other brilliance so much as_ spiritual 
brilliance. Shine, shine, shine—that is a divine command- 
ment! Let your life glow with the light that is not of this 
world—with the radiance that cometh down from above— 
with the brilliance that the soul of Jesus had. For the light 
of his countenance as we see it by Galilee and as we see it 
on Calvary is none other, than the true and highest light we 
know—the light of God shining in a life to illumine this 
world! How surely and vividly the lines of G. K. Chesterton 
picture the truth: 


“A Word came forth in Galilee, a word like to a star; 

It climbed and rang and blessed and burnt wherever brave 
hearts are; 

A word of sudden secret hope, of trial and increase, 

Of wrath and pity fused in fire, and passion kissing peace. 

A star that o’er the citied world beckoned, a sword of flame; 

A star with myriad thunders tongued: a mighty Word there 
came!” 


Our Father, grant also that our personalities like His may 
possess a quality so fine that our influence will be as wholesome 
as salt and as beneficial as light. Our prayer ts for the sake 
of His cause who was the best Example of that Light which 
lighteth every man coming into the world, Amen. 


LIFE QUESTIONS 


I. State some synonyms for salt suggested to you by the 
discussion in this chapter. Some synonyms for light. 

2. What is the meaning of losing our “savour”? Of hiding 
our “light”? 

3. “What’s the use of going to prayer meeting—you don’t 
get a thing?” Discuss this statement in relation to what the 
Master has to say about light and its uses. “Church gives 
me a pain—besides, I don’t like the minister. So I spend my 
Sundays in recreation, having a good time!” Discuss this 
attitude with relation to what Jesus said about salt. 
4. “I’m not cut out to be a teacher—never could teach 
anyway!” You’ve heard this excuse before. Can you help 

67 


[III-q] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE ; 
the person who says this by a reference to some of the sug- 
gestions, as to what education really is, which are offered in 
this chapter? Name the best teacher you ever had, and try 
to analyze the reason for his or her effectiveness. 

5. How is God’s purpose most effectively released in your 
life? - 

6. Name life’s highest form of creativity. 

7. How important is example in the training of children? 
Why? 

8. What is the matter with a faith that leaves people sour 
and solemn? 

9. Study the references to light in the New Testament. 
What is the precise meaning of the following passages: 
John 1:0, 12:36; Rom:..2:19; Eph. 5:14; 1. Thessengesse 
I Peter 2:9; and Rev. 21: 24? 

10. “There is nothing more useful than salt and sunshine” 
(Pliny, “Natural History,” xxxi). 

This interesting parallel in the writings of a man who lived 
during the first century might be explained how? 

11. Thirty-five hundred feet above the Galilee Lake on a 
prominent hill was the city of Safed. Cities on hill-tops were 
rare in Galilee but common in Judea. Jesus pointed probably 
to this hill-top city when he spoke of “a city that is set on a 
hill.” 

But does this counsel not sound like a command to display 
one’s egoism? How can you reconcile the “doing of good 
works before men” with the opposite counsels found in the 
first part of the sixth chapter of Matthew? 


68 





CHAPTER IV 


’ Adventuring With God in 
| the New Day 


DAILY READINGS 


A French philosopher has stated for us a significant truth: 
“My dear friend, it is not art, science, nor life that is com- 
plex; it is the ideas that we form for ourselves in regard 
to them. Whoever grasps a principle, grasps all its applica- 
tions. But the very diversity, multiplicity, perversity, and 
apparent contradictions of these applications, prevent us from 
seeing the principle.” The world outside us is harmonious, 
whole, simple. The thought we have of it, scientifically, 
theologically, may be partially true or entirely wrong. Notice 
how the conceptions of the cosmos have changed: the Baby- 
lonian system of a flat earth and a static world, the Ptolmaic 
astronomy with its stationary earth, the Copernican idea 
with planets revolving around a common center, the wonders 
of the new astronomy with its stellar spaces, relativity 
with its idea of a spherical universe. Notice, too, how, in 
the Old Testament, conceptions of Deity rapidly change: 
first, the primitive polytheism of the old Hebrews whose 
deities populated the storm, the lightning, the fountain, the 
tree, the wind, and catastrophic Nature; then, the observance 
of a God called Jehovah, the tribal Deity of the Hebrew 
tribes; then, the Jehovah of Canaan, a blend with Baal, the 
god of the land; and later, the beautiful ideal of the prophets, © 
especially Deutero-Isaiah, a God of all the earth, who de- 
manded justice, mercy and righteousness. In both these cases 
69 , 


[IV-1] THE MASTER'S MESSAGE ——s 


we have proof of Brunetiére’s statement: A principle has @ 
multiplicity of applications; and as sure as we live in a grow- 
ing world, new statements will continually be made about the 
truth behind reality. 

The highest aim of education, therefore, is to produce in 


men an attitude of openmindedness, ready to receive the new — 


revelations of a world which is not static but eternally 
growing ! 


Fourth Week, First Day 


God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship 
in spirit and in truth.—John 4:24. 


“By night,’ said Young, “an atheist half believes in God.” 
No one can stand beneath the canopy of stars and, knowing 
a little astronomy, fail to be awed by the immensity of this 


cosmos where we dwell. Let him look out straight in one — 


direction and it may be his gaze covers a trillion miles; let 
him turn to the opposite direction and remember again that 
his eye has traversed another trillion miles; then let him try 
to span in his thought the space between those two stars. 
Indeed, an atheist may well take pause in the presence of this 
vast grandeur of the heavens! 

But, obviously, such a world cannot possibly be fitted to the 
old, orthodox view of God, which Matthew Arnold pictures 
as “a magnified and non-natural man at the head of man- 


kind’s and the world’s affairs.” No such big man up in the — 


sky, ruling from a celestial throne, will do now for such a 
world as modern science has unfolded for us. For we must 
see at once that God is absolutely infinite and fathomless. 
He eludes, and will forever elude, any complete or compre- 


hensive knowledge of him. He transcends the highest reaches — 


of human experience; he is Infinity! 
But this fact does not exclude our knowing something of 


him. The scientist who studies stars, trees, stones, bacteria, 


electrons, or any other particle of existence, is making a 
discovery of the truth about God. The hero who sacrifices 


for another makes a discovery of God’s nature. The lover, 


the worker, the poet enter into the inexhaustible wonder 
of the spirit of God. In all our human experiences we are 


70 





ADV ENTURING WITH GODIN THE NEW DAY [IV-3] 


entering into a knowledge of the nature of the Great Spirit. 
And every bit of creation speaks of love and law. According 
to Jesus, they that worship him must worship in the spirit 
of love and in the search for truth! 


Fourth Week, Second Day 


I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot 
bear them now. Howbeit when he, the spirit of Truth, is 
come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak 
of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he 
speak: and he will shew you things to come.—John 16: 12-13. 


At the International ‘Missionary Council of 1923 a great 
bishop made a significant statement: “A man must come to 
the Council more desirous to learn than to teach, unwilling 
to believe that he brings with him the sole and complete 
solution of any problem... .” Such a generous spirit would 
lead us out of every doctrinal dispute, if we would but follow 
it. But truth, to some, is static, settled, solidified in a mass 
which must not be altered. When, therefore, anyone suggests 
in their presence other possibilities, their spleen comes to the 
face, and they grow purple. They get angry because they 
lack the moral stamina to engage in reciprocity of thinking. 
Like horses when autos first came, they gallop madly away 
at the approach of any new truth. 

“I do not ask anyone to think in my terms if he prefers 
_ others,” says George Santayana, “let him clean better, if 
he can, the windows of his mind, that the variety and the 
beauty of the prospect may spread more brightly before 
him.” We shall not be guided into the larger truth of the 
- new day until, toward one another, we have that spirit. If 
we speak only for ourselves, how shall we hear the contri- 
bution of our brother? How shall we be guided into all truth 
unless we agree to think together? The sharing of ideas is, 
as Albert Schweitzer has said, the hope of human progress! 


' Fourth Week, Third Day 


If ye continue in my word, ye are my disciples indeed, 
and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you 

free. They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were 
71 ; 


[IV-3] THE MASTER'S MESSAGE ‘ 


never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall 
be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say 
unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the slave of sin. . . . 
I know ye are Abraham’s seed, but ye seek to kill me, be- 
cause my word hath no place in you.u—John 8:31-37. 


The worst slavery of the day is a slavery to ignorance. The 
men in the van of humanity’s march have a terrific faith in 
truth. They see that sin is a bondage whose chains are ham- 
mered out of the iron of obscurantism and welded in the 
flame of reaction. When we know the truth, the word of 


Jesus will be understood, for we shall find freedom. Nature’s — 


display cf electricity at first held men in the grip of fear; 
then came the truth-seekers, freeing us. from fear, and open- 
ing up for us a hundred blessings from the force we feared. 
The vast ocean was a terror to ancient mariners, and of what 
was on the other side they trembled to think; then came a 
brave Columbus who, guided by a fundamental truth, opened 
for mankind a rich and wonderful continent. ~There is no 
power in the world greater than understanding truth, for it 
leads to larger service, larger life, larger joy. Our responsi- 
bility for the overthrow of lies and the discovery of new 
truths should be accepted in the spirit of a Bertrand Russell: 
“Better the world should perish, than that I, or any other 
human being, should believe a lie! That is the religion 
of thought, in whose scorching flames the dross of the world 
is being burnt away.” 

To be truly disciples of the Master of Truth, we must con- 
tinue to have faith in his word: It is mere foolishness to 
Say we are Abraham’s seed if we have not Abraham’s spirit, 
his questing spirit of high adventure in the name of freeing 
truth. Whosoever maketh a lie, and becometh a servant of 
the works of darkness, will never. know the freedom of the 
sons of God! 


“Ay,—Truth in very truth would set us free; 
But life is shackled, hand and foot, with lies, 
And all the fortresses of knavery 
Are built and buttressed with foul perjuries. . 
If Truth’s white light could pierce Life’s clouded sky, 
And let men see things as they trulv are, 
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ADVENTURING WITH GODIN THE NEW DAY [IV-4] 


Full half the rulers of the world would lie 
Prisoners in chains before Life’s Judgment-Bar. 


“Father of Lies, and High Diplomacies, 

Earth groans beneath the burden of your crimes! 
Come Truth, and therewith Peace, and swift release, 
And certitude of sweeter, nobler times!” 


Fourth Week, Fourth Day 


And he spake also a parable unto them: No man putteth 
a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then 
both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken 
out of the new agreeth not with the old. And no man 
utteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will 
urst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. 
But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are 
preserved. No man also having drunk old wine straightway 
desireth new: for he saith: The old is better.—Luke 5: 36-39. 


Jesus phrases for us here a fact which needs very much 
to be kept in mind by our generation. Just as patching an 
outworn garment with new and differing patches is never fully 
satisfactory, and just as trying to keep new wine in old con- 
tainers will probably result in the loss of both, so trying to 
make the new science a patch on the old religion, or pouring 
the new wine of man’s spiritual experience into the old 
bottles of orthodox theology must only end in failure. The 
new science is the new bottle into which the new wine of the 
new religion must be poured! For the new renaissance in 
the field of the spirit has blessed us with a new faith which 
can only be preserved for the new generation in the modern 
vessel which the new science affords. The day has arrived 
when true science and true religion can be recognized as 
completely harmonious! 

Old laws, old measures, old traditions are, of course, the 
loam out of which the new tree of truth has sprung. Both 
science and religion have moved up out of the darkness of 
the old ways into the fuller light of the new and brighter 
day. No sane man, who has tasted and seen the fruit of the 
new thinking, will say, “The old is better.” “Many an ancient 
hypothesis has been exploded,” says Charles E. Jefferson, 


73 


[IV-5] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE — f 


“by bringing it into contact with a fresh fact, and many a 
belief long honored has been relegated to the lumber room 
- of the mind. Everything, therefore, must be restudied, and 
all the old values must be reappraised. Nothing is too 
venerable to go into the melting pot, and nothing is too 
sacred to be cross-examined and sifted.” Out of the wreck 
of the old, it is our plain duty to help in the building of the 
new heaven and the new earth. Lowell’s lines echo the 
voices of all earth’s prophets: 


“New times demand new measures and new men; 
The world advances, and in time outgrows 

The laws that in our fathers’ day were best; 
And, doubtless, after us, some purer scheme 
Will be shaped out by wiser ones than we, 
Made wiser by the steady growth of truth.” 


Fourth Week, Fifth Day 


And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man 
should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep, and rise — 


night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he 
knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of 
herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn 


in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immedi- — 
ately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come. _ 


Mark 4:26-29. 


When we have observed that worthy worship of God in- | 


volves a never-ending search for his truth; that the free — 


give and take of thought is part of this search; that to 
languish in the dark dungeon of ignorance is a denial of 


Jesus’ word; and that the new time must live in its own new — 


light, we have already given intimations of the nature of the 
Kingdom of God. But in today’s passage in the fourth chap- 
ter of Mark, we find squarely facing us in Jesus’ plain words 
this fact: the Infinite God is working out his will in the world 
by a process of never-ending evolution! 

The earth brings forth its fruit by a developing process, 
first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the 
ear. Evidently Jesus was an evolutionist, for he speaks of 

74 


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al ili te i ie i i a 


: 
: 


~ 


ADVENTURING WITH GODIN THE NEW DAY [IV-6] 


nature’s processes as part of a great development! In this 
growth, man is the highest fruit the earth has yet brought 
forth. Sleeping and rising, through nights and days of eens 
of time, the seed of life has been growing. Up the winding 
spiral of ascending life has come man into the light of reason 
and conscience and love. So the leisurely plan of God for 
his child was worked out—an age for the blade—a hundred 
millenniums for the ear—a million years for the full corn in 
the ear. So, as Alice Post puts it: 


“Came on the outermost verge 
To the dust a heavenward urge; 
The voice of the living God 
Calling to the red-clay clod. 


“Out of the depths I clomb, 
Seeking a human home, 

Through spawn and nest and lair, 
Up the long biologic stair, 
Fulfilling my Maker’s plan, 
Achieving the form of man. 


“Came into my nostrils the breath 
Of life that outlives death. 

At last God made me whole— 

I became a living soul!” 


Fourth Week, Sixth Day 


And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig 
tree dried up from the roots. And Peter'calling to remem- 
brance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which 


_ thou cursedst is withered away. And Jesus answering saith 
unto them, Have faith in God.—Mark 11:20-22. 


Many, convinced of the vastness of the universe from a 
study of astronomy or of the certainty of evolution from a 
study of biology, experience change of heart with regard to 


: their religious faith which might be expressed in the words 
_ of the character in Browning’s poem, “The Worst of It”: 


“My faith is torn to a thousand scraps, 
And my heart feels ice while my words breathe flame!” 
75 


[IV-7] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE ' 

But why should the size of the world, or the method by 
which man was made, eliminate the Universal Power or the 
Benevolent Maker? Indeed, if our faith is not utterly fragile, 
instead of being torn to thousands of scraps by these facts 
of the new science, it should be enriched, increased and 
strengthened. A greater universe needs a greater God. A 
more wonderful process of man’s origin requires a more 
wonderful Originator. In teaching the new truth of God’s 
methods in our world one often hears a reaction like this 
from some men: “If I must give up one single thing in the 
old theology, I'll give up the church and belief in God en- 
tirely.” Their faith withers like the fig tree before any new 
truth, What would Jesus say to this? “O ye of little faith,” 
he would doubtless say as of old, “root your thinking deeper 
in the greatness of God, so no new sun may dry you up. 
Have real faith in God!” 

He whose life is rooted deep in the spirituality of creation 
will keep his triumphant faith though the heavens fall! He 
will go on with glad assurance like the seer, Sidney Lanier: 


“Ye marshes, how candid and simple and nothing withholding 
and free 
Ye publish yourselves to the sky and offer yourselves to the 
sea! 
‘Tolerant plains, that suffer the sea and the rains and the sun, 
Ye spread and span like the catholic man, who hath mightily 
won 
God out of knowledge, and good out of infinite pain, 
And sight out of blindness, and purity out of stain. 
As the marsh-hen secretly builds on the watery sod, 
Behold I will build me a nest on the greatness of God!” 


Fourth Week, Seventh Day 


And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of 
God? or with what comparison shall we compare it? It is 
like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the 
earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: but 
when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than 
all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls 
of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.—Mark 4:30-32. 


76 


ADV ENTURING WITH GODIN THE NEW DAY [IV-m] 


When we have seen the wonder of evolution as a fact in 
all nature and have recognized it as the source, not of skep- 
ticism, but of increased faith, we have not yet fully appre- 
ciated its deeper significance. If, standing aside for a moment, 
we view what has come up out of the earth in the xon-long 
arising of life, we see set in the midst of nature’s variegated 
glory like a shining jewel in a crown the marvel of man’s 
personality. We see one who consciously can chart the heavens 
with his telescope, explore the mysteries of life with his 
microscope, harness world forces to fly, travel swiftly as the 
wind, or speak across great distances. We see one who con- 
sciously can love and serve and sacrifice and give ardent 
devotion to high causes. We see here what is greater than 
all herbs: man’s soul, God’s best incarnation, consciously 
aiding in the ongoing of the divine purpose! That purpose 
is a kingdom in the earth, an ever-coming kingdom tnade up 
by men who, in intelligence, character and good-will, have 
grown to be like Jesus, and have gone out upon a thrilling 
adventure with the living God! 


“God is; 
God sees; 
God loves; 
God knows. 
And Right is Right; 
And Right is Might. 
In the full ripeness of His Time, 
All these His vast prepotencies 
Shall round their grace-work to the prime 
Of full accomplishment, 
, And we shall see the plan sublime 
Of His beneficent intent. 
Live on in hope! 
Press on in faith! 
Love conquers all things, 
Even Death.” 


MEDITATION ON THE MASTER’S THOUGHT 


Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the 
prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For 
77 


[1V-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE ' 


verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot 
or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be 
fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these 
least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be 
called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever 
shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in 
the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except 
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the 
scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the 
kingdom of heaven.—Matt. 5:17-20. 


I 


The church and state officials of Jesus’ time were very much 
afraid of his new thinking. They saw his original attitude 
toward the rigid Sabbath observances, and they whispered 
that he would destroy the Sabbath. They listened to his 
broad teaching about God, and it was so startlingly original 
that they feared the overthrow of their own outworn the- 


ologies. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus takes the 


opportunity to explain his attitude with regard to the old 
law of the Jews, and with regard to the revered teachings 
of the nation’s saints, the prophets. He pointed out that he 
meant not to annul the past, but to fulfil it in the future by 
broadening and enlarging its application in the present. In- 


dependent thinking was a new thing to the Pharisees and — 


they hated Jesus for his daring. They persecuted him for it. 
At last, on account of it, they had him crucified. 

The main fault of the Pharisees was that they failed to 
see that God can reveal his will in the truth and experience 
of every age. As a matter of fact, they could not think for 
themselves because their minds were held fast in the rigid 
forms of old traditions. 

The danger in our own day that our thinking may become 
Pharisaical rather than Christlike is illustrated in the true 
words of J. H. C. Macaulay: “There is nothing,” he says, 
“so uncommon today as independent and original thinking.” 
The honest thinker, today, like Jesus must be willing to stand 
the scorn and the bitterness of the swarming crowd of scribes 
and Pharisees. But no man must forget this clear fact that 
is written on every single page of our New Testament: 


A man cannot be Christian in his thinking unless he thinks 


78 


ADV ENTURING WITH GODIN THE NEW DAY [IV-m] 


for himself, with the mind God gave him, concerning the 
problems of life and thought! 

While Jesus went out of his way to point out that the old 
law was not to be destroyed, no, not one jot or tittle of it, 
and while he always took as a basis or starting point for his 
thought some great teaching of the prophets, nevertheless, he 
was absolutely fearless in the use of his own mind. And not 
a thousand Pharisees with their hateful looks and their dire 
threats could turn him as much as a cubit from the heroic 
path of truth in which he placed his feet. Not otherwise 
“must be today the stern ideal of the pioneer thinker. Not 
all the shaking of doubtful heads, not all the traditional plead- 
ings and disagreements of the majority, nor the ostracisms 
of those who enjoy the status quo should so much as turn 
him a hair’s breadth from that gleaming Light of God-given 
truth which he follows. He will be called a crazy man, as 
Jesus was. He will be deserted on every hand by those who 
called themselves friends. He will be pelted with epithets 
calculated to burn and wound and kill. But through it all, 
he will follow the way of the explorer, away from the beaten 
track and out into the realms of discovery, for upon his 
divine demurring depends the hope of human progress. 

Emily Dickinson knew the experience and words it in telling 
language: 


“Much madness is divinest sense 
To a discerning eye; 
Much sense the starkest madness. 
*Tis the majority 
In this, as all, prevails. 
Assent, and you are sane; 
Demur—you’re straightway dangerous 
And handled with a chain!” 


The honest thinker, who pioneers for truth in the field of 
thought, is so sure of his ground because he knows that 
God is a living and not a dead God, and that he speaks to 
us today even as he did to Jesus and the prophets. Too long 
we have been making the kingdom of God identical with the 
past kingdoms, the kingdom of* Greece or of Rome or of 
Jerusalem. We have been thinking that God revealed himself 

79 


[IV-m] THE MASTER'S MESSAGE sy 


in an unusual way in those ancient days, in a way which we 
cannot know now. But “God who at sundry times and in 
divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the 
prophets,” can in our own day speak unto us and reveal 
unto us his holy will. Why should there be anything strange 
about God’s coming to us now and revealing to us increasingly 
his purposes, even to a higher degree than ever before giving 
his will for his world? James Russell Lowell understands: 


“God is not dumb that He should speak no more; 
If thou hast wanderings in the wilderness, 

And find’st not Sinai, ’tis thy soul is poor; 
There towers the mountain of the voice no less, 
Which whoso seeks shall find, but he who bends 
Intent on manna still and mortal ends, 

Sees it not, neither hears its thundered lore.” 


We, too, must come not to destroy but to fulfil. It is our 
duty, not to destroy the religion of the past, but to fulfil it 
in the present. We too must come with Jesus’ faith which 
knows that true believing needs must issue in original thinking 
and adventuresome doing! 


IT 


It was an interesting, yet natural, procedure for Jesus, 
who was himself a young man even when he died, to select 
for his followers young men, still unenslaved by custom, 
still unfettered in mind, and still unpossessed by prejudice. 
Jesus knew human nature, and he realized that youth would 
be more receptive to his new truth and more sensitive to the 
wonder and the hopes and the valors he would awake. It 
was the old men who put Jesus to death, the Pilates, the chief 
priests, the Sanhedrin counsellors, the Pharisees, the soldiers. 
“Nearly all men,’ says Charles Darwin, “past a moderate 
age, are incapable of looking at facts under a new point of 
view.” 

One of the tragedies of our day is that the Church, unlike 
her Master, is frowning too often on the spirit of her youth. 
Many who control in the Church’s life are unable to look at 
facts under a new point of view, the point of view of the 
younger generation. Margaret Slattery tells in her book, “You 

80 ) 


AN - 
ADV ENTURING WITH GODIN THE NEW DAY [IV-m] 


Can Learn to Teach,” of a young man who went out from 
his home church so discouraged, because of the shackles of 
dogma and the fetters of tradition which minister and officials 
attempted to foist on all members, that he declared he was 
“through with church, religion, and all the rest of it forever!” 
At college, however, he came under the influence of a more 
liberal atmosphere where trustful freedom and honest think- 
ing were combined with a warm friendliness. That boy, 
starving for real religion, found it, and entered into such a 
profound experience of God that he went from college dedi- 
cated to Christian service! 

Are we going to drive our splendid youth from the church 
with our rigid thinking? Is the church going to shut the 
new kingdom of heaven from itself and forbid anyone else 
from entering? Will the church be toward its young people 
like 7Esop’s dog in the manger, unable to assimilate the new 
thought itself and unwilling its younger generation should? 
“Can young Jones stay in the church?” asks a contemporary 
journalist. “He wants to. By its conception of itself the 
church is committed to the ideas of Jesus. And they are 
meat and drink to the young man. One has a right to demand 
Christ’s standards of the church... . To young Jones’ mind 
the church offers the best, the most natural instrument, for . 
shaping the world into the kingdom of which he dreams. 
But will the church let young Jones stay in? Will the church 
frown on a man, give him the cold shoulder, because he trusts 
enough in God not to fear to ask every question and drive 
the question through until he gets his answer?” 

Begbie in his book, “Painted Windows,” has a passage, 
which, while not entirely true, illustrates the historic attitude 
of religions: “Every religion in history, from the worship 
of Osiris, Serapis, and .Mithra, to the loathsome rites prac- 
ticed in the darkness of African forests, has been handed down 
as unquestionable truth commanding the loyalty of its disciples. 
What logic, what magic of holiness, could destroy a false 
religion if tradition is sacrosanct and all innovation of the 
devil?” I think it is safe to say that no religion ever existed 
which was entirely false. Jesus came not to destroy and 
we must come not to destroy. But in the growth which fulfils 
there will be false traditions sloughed off, and outworn parts 
discarded. Youth comes from God, not to destroy the church, 

81 


CORE een, her eee Sen ee ea 
% Spe eee 


[IV-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE < 
but to fulfil its highest ambitions; the church must come, 
not to destroy the glow of youth, but to permit and assist in 
its fulfilment. ‘‘We teach them,” says Wiggam, “to experi- 
ment fearlessly in chemistry, physics, biology, and even in 
psychology, but we begin lying to them about life the moment 
they leave the laboratory. Here they are, pouring by the 
millions through our schools, brave, wide-eyed, clean, un- 
spoiled, ready to do and dare with the universe; their pulses 
tumbling with as rich idealisms as ever set the blood of a 
happy warrior singing upon a great enterprise. ... Then we 
instantly close those open minds and teach them to belong to 
parties, to evaluate life in creeds, to express social power in 
catchwords, to compress vast ardors into conventional molds, 
-to follow whatever spiritual goose-step suits the vested re- 
ligious, economic, and political interests of the time.” 

This spirit, unfortunately, has been too often the curse of 
the church’s work. From her door she has often driven her 


best thinkers, and too often stultified and crushed the aspiring 


minds of those who were admitted. Not long ago the 
moderator of the Presbyterian general assembly told of a 
campus of ten thousand students where to maintain connection 
with the church, to profess Christianity, “simply wasn’t done.” 
That condition, unfortunately widely prevalent, is just the 
result of the church’s unsympathetic attitude. A recent con- 
versation with a young college man explains it: “Students 
are against compulsory chapel and are treating Christianity 
with polite scorn, not because they regard it as a relic of 
the Middle Ages, but because it has no vital message for the 
world today!” 


Can one imagine an astronomer, newly called to a chair in 


a university, held up by an examining board and only admitted 
when he had given his promise to teach only the astronomy 
of the second century, and to discover no new stars, and to 
advance no new theories as to the origin of the solar system? 
And yet that is practically the silly procedure which holds 
in some of our churches when they ordain a man to the 
ministry or install him in a pulpit. They hold him up at 
the point of a mental pistol—the accusation of heresy—and 
force him to teach what has always been taught on pain of 
expulsion! No wonder Channing says: “It is the tendency 
of the increasing civilization and expansion of mind to pro- 
82 





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ADV ENTURING WITH GODIN THE NEW DAY [IV-m] 


duce a tone of thought and feeling which is unfriendly to the 
church which is exclusive in spirit.” 

The church which will not mentally grow, and permit its 
membership all mental freedom, is absolutely doomed. For 
the church is in the position of the chick in the egg. Within 
the safe shell, life seems warm, secure. The change of its 
expanding life at first fills it with terror. That pressure on 
the shell is quite uncomfortable. It is terribly afraid of any 
new freedom which will break this separateness from the wide 
world. We know that unless the hindering shell is broken 
and the chicken comes forth, its life is settled. Jt must come 
out of its shell or it will die. That is exactly the fix of the 
church. Jt must fulfil its religion or it will destroy it! 

Ah! like Jesus the church can trust its youth. Funda- 
mentally, their minds and their characters are the equal of 
any in the last twenty centuries, or in all time. They are in 
revolt, but they do not wish for the destruction of that which 
is true and that which is eternally right. They will admit 
no divine dictum which is not indorsed by their own indi- 
vidual judgment. They believe in their own ‘responsibility. - 
They have come not to destroy the hopes of the ages but to 
fulfil them in a glorious new day. “I am happy to think,” 
said Thomas Hardy, “that this religion without dogmas—in 
which, I think, we may see in advance the religion of the 
future, and by which all of the modern world that can be 
saved will be saved—may find shelter in the churches of 
today!” Let all forward-looking men and women hope and 
pray and work that the religion of the new day may- find 
shelter in the old church. It will come to pass, if the leaders 
of the church understand Christ enough to see that his faith 
was a faith in the fulfilling power of trustful freedom! 


a Ba Se 


It is a true sign of progress that the new generation is sick 
of cant and falsehood and the perfervid reiterations of old 
delusions. But, according to Jesus, the kingdom of heaven 
cannot be entered on the wings of new thinking alone. Not 
one of the old commandments must be broken. Those who 
break them, and teach others to do so, shall be the least in 
the kingdom of heaven. A new thinking must issue in a new 

83 


[1V-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE f 


fidelity to life. A new faith must issue in new character. 
The achievement of a superior religion must result in the 
achievement of a superior character. A religion which ex- 
ceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees in genuine faith- 
must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees in genuine 
righteousness! 

So the new truth of Jesus was a corrective truth. It set 
up new and higher standards of living. It took the old ideals 
and exalted them. It took an old and futile and lifeless code 
and gave it a new dynamic. It took the old law, encrusted 
with hypocrisies and shams, and freed it for a new and 
larger life. It took the old law against killing and showed that 
the real sin that needed to be removed was deep down in 
the heart—anger. It took the old law against committing 
adultery and showed that the roots of the evil were deep down 
in the heart—foul and lustful thoughts. The ideals of the old 
law were not high enough, but he did not destroy them. He 
fulfilled them, by widening and deepening their applications. 

Did the scribes and Pharisees live up to the old law? 
Some of them did, strictly. But most of them did not live 
up to the law, even though its requirements were not so high. 
They delighted in intellectual arguments, the sharing of 
opinions, polite ecclesiastical exercises in *the temple. But 
when it came to life their professions were a long way ahead 
of their conduct. In the religion of Jesus there was very’ 
little room for creeds or fancy intellectual philosophies, but 
he cared tremendously about the moral obligations of religion. 
Faith meant nothing to him unless it was brought forth in a 
good life of love, truth, service, holiness, sacrifice. Time ang 
time again he rebuked the Pharisees, on account of their wrong 
emphasis in religious matters (Matt. 23: 13-33, Mark 
12: 38-40). 

As we survey our world we feel it needs something of the 
same kind of rebuke that Jesus gave the Pharisees. With 
our physical science, which has built a world-civilization of 
enginery and machinery, we have achieved immense external 
wealth. With our new thinking and increased means of 
communication we have vastly widened knowledge and pro- 
duced a wiser generation. But is it a ‘better generation? 
The Athens of Sophocles, Pericles, and Phidias had none of 
our modernity but they did wonderfully. The soil that gréw 

84 


as ee a | 


ADV ENTURING WITH GOD IN THE NEW DAY [1V-m} 


Petrarch and Leonardo da Vinci and Luther and Columbus 
was enriched by other influences than we know. What, if 
with all our wealth and power in the physical world, we are 
left poverty-stricken in the realm of the soul? 

The task of the younger generation with its splendid and 
courageous new thinking is to create a new world of character. 
It is to build in the new day a world-order wherein the per- 
sonal and social ideals of Jesus have a real and vital part. 
“Lift up your eyes,’ said Roswell Hitchcok, ‘and you may 
see another stadium of history advancing. Its aim will be 
to realize the Christianity of Christ himself, which is about 
to renew its youth by taking to heart the Sermon on the 
Mount. He that sitteth on the throne is saying: ‘Behold, I 
make all things new. This earth is yet to be redeemed, soul 
and body, with all its peoples, occupations and interests.” 

Let the church not sit down easily and agreeably beside the 
modern man with his scrappy culture, his opulent science, 
and his disordered soul. But let the church provide the en- 
lightened and inspired leadership that will give that man what 
he badly needs: a sane faith brought forth in superior 
character! 


“What ye want is light—indeed.... 

God’s light organized 

In some high soul, crowned “capable to lead 
The conscious people, conscious and advised— 
For if we lift a people like mere clay, 

It falls the same. We want thee, O unfound 
And Sovran teacher! if thy beard be grey 

Or black, we bid thee rise up from the ground 
And speak the word God giveth thee to say, 
Inspiring into all this people round 

Instead of passion, thought, which pioneers 
All generous passion, purifies from sin, 

And strikes the hour for! Rise up, teacher! here’s 
A crowd to make a nation—best begin 

By making each a man, till all the peers 

Of earth’s true patriots and pure martyrs in 
Knowing and doing!” 


85 


[IV-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE < oe 


IV 


There are some people who never get into step with the — 
ongoing purposes of God because they are invalided with a 
creeping disease called inert pessimism. Worthy enterprises — 
beckon but they sit still, undecided and glum. Noble adven- — 
tures chailenge their devotion, but theirs is a weak and woeful | 
response: “Impossible!” Apparently there are some men SO — 
cold and lymphatic in their temperament that they are moved 
by nothing. They hate enthusiasm, And they are not con- — 
tent with being stragglers in the onward march of human 
progress themselves, but seem to carry with them a portable — 
fire extinguisher ready always to quench every spark of 
enthusiasm that begins to glow in others. They are men like a 
the Georgia cracker who sat one day at his shanty door, — 
smoking a corncob pipe. Along came a stranger. 

“How’s cotton coming?” 


“Ain’t none!” said the cracker. , 
“Didn’t you plant any?” 
“Nope!” replied the cracker, “’fraid o’ boll weevils!” 4 


“Well, how’s your corn?” 
“Didn’t plant none, ’fraid o’ drought 
“Well,” finally asked the stranger, “how’s your potatoes?” 
“Ain’t got none!” said the cracker, “scairt o’ tater bugs 1” 
“Well, what did you plant?” . 
“Nuthin’,” said the cracker, “just played safe!” : 
Too often the oncoming kingdom is blocked by some pes- 
simist playing safe. Mussolini may not stand as the ideal 
servant of the kingdom but he has given us a splendid motto: 
‘Live dangerously!” It is the same ideal uttered one hun-— 
dred and fifty years ago by Ben Franklin: “The way to be 
safe is never to be secure!” | 
All human progress is the result of faith. In the eleventh — 
chapter of Hebrews the writer, glowing with a great vision 4 
of what faith had done for his people, pictured the heroes — 
of Israel, Abraham, Isaac, and the rest, as accomplishing 
their deeds by faith. To which we might add these facts of 
our own: By faith Jesus adventured to fulfil the religion 
of his fathers and brought forth a new and glorious church; 
by faith Paul crossed the plains of Asia and the waters of the 
7Egean Sea and won the ancient world for his Master; by 
86 : 


1? 


NE eae ie ThE ol nae 







7 ae 
, 


. ADVENTURING WITH GODIN THE NEW DAY [IV-m] 


faith missionaries saved Roman civilization and converted the 
savage Goths and Vandals to the religion of Jesus; by faith 
Columbus crossed the unknown ocean and opened a new 
world; by faith Washington established in the new world a 
great republic; by faith Livingstone opened up the dark con- 


tinent of Africa to the light of a higher civilization; by faith 


Lincoln won freedom for the blacks and a greater solidarity 
for his nation; by faith Bell invented the telephone and Ford 
invented his automobile and Edison illumined the physical 
world with the miracle of electricity. So goes the record of 
faith; it is nothing but the record of all human achievement! 

But the divinest achievers have always worked with God. 
Without him our efforts are vain. If we leave him out of 
account we have the sense of something lacking, an experience 
which Browning truly phrascs: 


“Inscribe all human effort with one word, 
Artistry’s haunting curse, the Incomplete!” 


Man is God’s child and when Father and son work together 
what wonders can be accomplished! Truly we are “co- 
workers” with the Great Spirit, with God, the eternal Youth, 
who is ever questing onward, and calling for His children to 
follow. For as Bridges has well said: 


“The world is unto God a work of art, 

Of which the unaccomplished heavenly plan 
Is hid in life within the creature’s heart, 

And for perfection looketh unto man!” 


Shall we fail God in this new and dangerous day? Shall 
we heed the Pharisaic voices which, entrenched in old tradi- 
tions, mock the ongoing purposes of the daring faithful? 
Shall we be untrue to the example of our Master who poured 
out his life in wondrous fidelity for the fulfilment of the 
great Kingdom? There is no avoiding the issue: those who 
adventure upward with the ongoing God will be inspired and 
enheartened by an unshakable faith built on original thinking, 
nobler character, and the unfaltering conviction of cooperation 
with the Father! They will sing with a brave knight of 
another day, Charles Kingsley: 

87 


[IV-q] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


“Gather you, gather you, angels of God— 
Freedom, and Mercy, and Truth; 
Come! for the Earth is grown coward and old; 
Come down, and renew us her youth. 
Wisdom, Self-sacrifice, Daring and Love, 
Haste to the battlefield, stoop from above— 
To the Day of the Lord at hand. 


k K * * ** ** * 


“Who would sit down and sigh for a lost age of gold, 
While the Lord of all ages is here? 
True hearts will leap up at the trumpet of God, 
And those who can suffer can dare. 
Each old age of gold was an iron age too, 
And the meekest of saints may find stern work to do, 
In the Day of the Lord at hand!” 


O Lord, our God, grant unto us the truth, we beseech Thee, 
‘im our new day, that we may follow it with unfaltering steps, 
that the agelong Kingdom of Thy heart may come nearer in 
our world, For Jesus’ sake, Amen. 


LIFE QUESTIONS 


1. Is adventure in the field of thought a Christian duty? 
Is it possible for a man today to be what J. 'M. Scott calls — 
“a Columbus of truth’? | 

2. Are our ideas about God final? Are those of Jesus? 
Name some attributes of God suggested by the words of 
Jesus in this part of the Sermon on the Mount. 

3. To discover the truth about life and religion is it neces- 
sary to give up our preconceived notions, dogmatic prejudices, 
-customary cherished opinions? What are the chief sources of 
false notions in religion? Did Jesus mean to establish a rigid 
creed? 

4. Of what did righteousness among the Pharisees and | 
scribes consist? How did Jesus seek to improve upon their 
‘notions of right and wrong? Did he succeed? How would 
“you describe this exalting of old standards in terms of today? — 

5. Are Jesus’ standards, as we find them in the Sermon 
universal? eternal? applicable today? Will there ever be such 





ADVENTURING WITH GOD IN.THE NEW DAY {IV-a] 


ea. thing as permanent moral and spiritual standards? Have 
we them now? 


6. How can mankind best conserve the accumulated achieve- 


ments and valuable experiences of the past? 


7. What is the more imperative duty, the destruction of the 
false or the construction of the true? 

8. “The word fulfil is used in the most strict and ordinary 
sense: He means that He is come to give that which fills up 
the husk of the outward law, its kernel, its substance... .” 
(F. D. Maurice.) 

Do you agree that the new message of Jesus is a living and 


| logical unfolding of the old law of the Jewish code? 


9. “The effectiveness of the work of Christianity ... has 
been proportioned to the thoroughness with which it has 
devoted itself to some higher principle than any which could. 
be called worldly.” (E. Lyttelton.) 

Are the principles of Christianity’s righteousness too high 
to be actually lived in everyday life? How many are truly 
living the higher righteousness? 

10. Was Jesus’ faith in God an active or passive affair? 
What were the vital elements of his faith? 


89 


CHAPTER V 


Brotherhood in the New Day 


DAILY READINGS 


2 

In one of our best magazines there appeared recently a 
poem by Elizabeth Morrow which exactly describes the prob- — 
~ lem with which we shall be dealing in the discussion of this — 
chapter : 


“My friend and I have built a wall 
Between us thick and wide: 

The stones of it are laid in scorn 
And plastered high with pride. 


“We talk across the stubborn stones 
So arrogantly tall— 

Only we cannot touch our hands 
Since we have built the wall.” 


This fact we all realize: there are walls in human life which — 
frustrate fellowship! There are artificial barriers built by the ~ 
brutalized hands of men gone blind with pride and hard- — 
hearted hate, barriers which successfully obstruct the spread — 
of brotherhood. In our daily readings let us see some of 
these walls that shut men apart. 


Fifth Week, First Day 


Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on 
earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be 
done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where 
two or three are gathered together in my name, there am 
I in the midst of them.—Matt. 18:19-20. 


90 


BROTHERHOOD IN THE NEW DAY _ [V-2] 


One of the most obvious and insidious forms of intolerance, 
barring the way to brotherhood, is bigotry of belief! In our 
New Testament passage, selected from the words of Jesus, 
we hear him speaking about the way men come together most 


effectively. He does not say that they must agree on earth 


as touching anything they think; but he says when they 
agree to ask together, that seeking shall be rewarded. 

_ Uniformity in thinking, therefore, is nowhere required in 
the New Testament. Nor will common sense require it. It 
is true that each life is in a sense different, each life has 
something unique and valuable to contribute. The iron hand 
which would compel uniformity would therefore be stultifying 
and stupid. To deny any man the right to think for himself 
about Reality is to deny what God does not. It is to violate 
the first duty man owes to God: the obligation to think 
honestly for oneself. “I think my credo is,” said Hugh 
Walpole, English novelist, “that I’ believe one of the first 
necessities for a human being is an absolute tolerance of the 
religious discoveries of every other human being.” 

Liberalist and literalist must come together in the name of 
Jesus (which means with the spirit of his understanding love) 
tolerantly granting each other the right to follow the guiding 
of God as it is revealed aglow in a man’s own heart. A 
contemporary. seer pictures Jesus face to face with the brag- 
ging intolerance of the wise men of today: 


“In sorrow spake the Christ: ‘If ye had faith 
As a mustard seed, this mountain ’twixt you twain, 
Which cleaves your brotherhood, would at your word 
Of loving understanding be removed. 
War not with one another but with sin; 
Talk not of “creeds” or “creedless,” but of faith. 
Your greatest heresies are pride of heart 
And loveless scorn that wounds and cannot heal. 
Your scourge of bitter words falls on my back 
And by your strife again I’m crucified.’ ” 


Fifth Week, Second Day 


Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which - 
shall believe on me through their word; that they all may 
OI 


[V2 = THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


‘be one;.as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that 
‘they also may be one in us: that the world may believe 
‘that Thou hast sent me. And the glory which Thou gavest 
‘me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we 
are one: I in them, and Thou in me, that they may be made 
perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou 


hast sent me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved me. 


—John 17:20-23. 


This agonizing prayer of Jesus has been ringing in the 


rears of Christians for centuries. It is a passionate prayer 
for unity and the Master prayed these words a few hours 
before he gave his life for the redemption of men. But the 
«churches have no more heeded it than if it had never been 
spoken. Men have gloried in building exclusive barriers 
around God to shut their brothers out! 

Thus the Christians of the early centuries of our era 


put to death whole tribes who refused to accept the Christian — 


God. The Christians of the Middle Ages made the church 
a closed corporation and anyone who questioned its infal- 
lible authority was at once branded a heretic and condemned 


to hell fire (which often became a reality in the form of 


burning at the stake or the agony of the torture chamber). 
The followers of Mohammed felt it their duty to put to the 
sword those who failed to embrace the religion of Allah and 


his one true Prophet. Thus through the ages groups have 


invented what they called “The One True Church,’ and have 
branded their brothers outside with shame! And all because 
certain inconsequential forms were exalted as essential: mas- 
ses, indulgences, pilgrimages, baptisms, rituals, healings, popes, 
holy books, and pious practices of various kinds. 

But there is only one true Church the world around and 
that is the Church of Humanity. All churches of whatever 
ritual are but expressions of the same human desires and 
needs. As all these cooperate in one common brotherhood, 
recognizing the one common Father, and living in love 
together, will the dream of Jesus be realized: “. .. that 
they all may be one, as Thou Father art in me... that 
. they may be made perfect in one!” As for me let my 


church embrace the world; as Burbridge does in his good 
_ poem: . 


92 


a eee 


¢ 
i ee 


BROTHERHOOD IN THE NEW DAY [V-3}; 


“All who love God are in my church embraced, 
Not that I have no sense of preference— 
None deeper! but I rather love to draw, 
_ Even here, on earth, on toward the future law, 
_And_ Heaven’s fine etiquette, where? who? and whence? 
May not be asked: and at the wedding feast, 
North shall sit down with south, and west with east.” 


Fifth Week, Third Day 


And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene,. 
Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross.—: 
Matt. 27:32. 


It is interesting to note that the first man who actually 
carried the cross of Jesus was a black man, a Cyrenean from 
the north of Africa. The men who killed Jesus were white 
and the man they made carry the cross was black. And 
wherever white men make colored races carry a cross of 
shameful exclusion there the Christ of humanity ts crucified 
afresh! 

It is hard to see how a pigment in the skin can make one 
race superior or inferior. But for ages foolish man has se- 
parated himself off with pride because his skin was colored. 
differently from his fellows. We become suspicious of a. 
man whose skin is not the same as ours. We create in our 
imaginations all kinds of evil about him. But this is childish- 
ness. Dark-skinned races are as much children of God as: 
the light-skinned races. “Humanity,” as Theodore Parker 
has so well said, “is the son of God!” The negro is the 
image of God cut in ebony. The red man is the image of 
God cut in mahogany. The yellow man is the image of God 
carved in gold. And because the white man is the image of 
God carved in ivory, shall he insist that ivory is a superior 
vessel to ebony, mahogany, or gold? We must not separate’ 
natural brothers with walls of color! Burns saw the visior 
long ago: 


“Then let us pray that come it may 
(As come it will for a’ that,) 
That Sense and Worth, o’er a’ the earth, 
Shall bear the gree, an’ a’ that. 
93 


Be ISI a Nee a ee ee ee ER bik Gee ee ee oP eee en ee RON en oe PRE +. ak 


[V-4] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


For a’ that, an’ a’ that, 
It’s coming yet for a’ that, 
That man to man, the world o’er, 
Shall brothers be for a’ that.” 


Fifth Week, Fourth Day 


And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, my 
house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer?— 
Mark 11:17. 





National pride has always been one of the most sensitive 
elements in human nature. Flags, histories, traditions, heroes 
—all these conspire to give a set of mind that is dangerous 
to world brotherhood. Patriotism is a noble, wonderful, 
beautiful emotion. Every man feels it somewhat, and there 
is virtue in it. But when a prophet with the world visior 
in his eyes comes to his own people with a message which 
touches on universal kinship, the nation rises in indignation 
and heaven help the prophet after that. Jeremiah was stoned, 
Savonarola was burned, Wilson was beaten into helplessness. 
They wanted to kill Jesus, the very members of his home- 


town church, as we saw in one of the daily readings in the — 


first chapter. Eventually, they did slay him for “betraying the 
nation!” ; 

And here in our passage today we hear Jesus abruptly — 
calling their attention to an old prophetic message which, in — 
their national narrowness and pride, they had forgotten. It 
was in the holy temple of God that all nations of earth were 
to be brought prayerfully together! 


The point is that it is literally true that there is no such 


thing as a Separate nation! Try to define “nation” and see. 
Try to think of a nation on the planet that is actually com- 
posed of people of one kind only. Dr. Franz Boas, noted 
anthropologist, is right when he says: “Nationality is irrele- 
vant. All nations are mongrel.” God not only made man in 
his image but he made every man in the same image as every 
other. National barriers are largely artificial. Jingoism will 
go when Jesus’ purpose of brotherhood throws these barriers 
down. An increasing number of people are beginning to feel 
like Emma Lazarus: ‘ 
94 


BROTHERHOOD IN THE NEW DAY _ [V-5] 


j “Here was the lofty truth revealed, that each 


‘Must feel himself in all, must know where’er 
The great soul acts or suffers or enjoys, 
His proper soul in kinship there is bound, 

Then my life-purpose dawned upon my mind, 
Encouraging as morning.” 


Fifth Week, Fifth Day 


But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And 
who is my neighbor? And Jesus answering said, A certain 
man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among 
thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded 
him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance 
there came down a certain priest that way: and when he 
saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a 
Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, 
and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, 
as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw 
him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound 
up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his 
own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of 
him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out 
two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, 
Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when . 
I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three, 
thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among 
thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then 
said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.—Luke 


10: 29-37. 


Christian friendship is the most talked of and least prac- 
ticed ideal in the world. Christianity is supposed to teach 
us to love our neighbors—but as a matter of fact modern 
society recognizes no neighbors. We quarrel with our rela- 
tives, gossip about the folks next door, compete savagely 
with the man who happens to be in the same business as 
ourselves. And as for the stranger within our gates or with- 


‘out our gates, he is utterly neglected. 


The story of the Good Samaritan is so well known that 
we are apt to miss its deepest message, namely this: No man 
is a stranger; every soul you meet is your brother; every 
soul you meet may need your help! The Samaritan, a hated 


95 


[V-6] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


alien, recognizes a brother in the half-dead Jew lying by the 
roadside, more readily than the priest or the choir singer. 
It was his treatment of an utter stranger exactly as one would 
_ treat a brother that constitutes the heart of the story! On 
every modern street (as one can imagine on every street of 
old Jerusalem) there are unfortunate strangers needing Good 
Samaritans. Bill Simpson’s spirit is nothing else but the 
spirit of Christ: “Daily, everywhere they go, they shall find 
a dear brother or sister in the eyes of everyone they meet 
and shall feel themselves surrounded and accompanied by 
them on all their way.” 

Ah! Father in heaven, how languishing souls need tender 
touch of brotherly hands! One of our best modern poets, 
Thomas Clark, gives voice to our hearts: 


“The touch of human hands— 

Not vain, unthinking words, 

Nor that cold charity 

Which shuns our misery; 

We seek a loyal friend 

Who understands, 

And the warmth, the pulsing warmth 
Of human hands. 


“The touch of human hands— 

Such care as was in Him 

Who welked in Galilee 

Beside the silver sea; 

We need a patient guide 

Who understands, . 

And the warmth, the loving warmth 
Of human hands.” 


Fifth Week, Sixth Day 


And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his dis- 
ciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? 
—Matt. 9:11. 

And with him they crucify two thieves; the one on his 
right hand and the other on his left.. And the scripture was 
fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the trans- 
gressors.—Mark 15:27-28. 





BROTHERHOOD IN THE NEW DAY [V-6] 


And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on 
him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But 
the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou 
fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And 
we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our 
deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said 
unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy 
kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, 
Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.—Luke 23:39-43. 


In our daily readings we have been seeking to set forth 
the great fact of human brotherhood, a fact stated many 
centuries ago by a great Greek, Epictetus, “The universe is 
one city full of beloved ones.” We have seen, however, that 
various forms of misunderstanding serve to erect walls of 
hostility between men: walls of creed, church, color, nation, 
and custom. There is still another wall which comes between 
men, and perhaps this is one of the most common: the wall 
of class. Pride in ancestry, virtue, wealth or position puffs 
us up until we commence to look down on our fellow mortals 
as wretched or degraded or inferior persons. 

If we study Jesus’ life with any appreciation at all we shall 
see at once how far from this attitude he was. He frater- 
nized with the commonest people until it provoked criticism. 
Transgressors, malefactors, and men of low degree he counted 
as among his best friends. A common thief on a cross, even 
in the night of his death, was not too low to be befriended. 
Kingman has placed his finger on one of the most charac- 
teristic qualities of the Master’s life when he says of him: 
“The face of Jesus was as wistfully kind to the unclean as 
to the clean, and to the ignorant as to the learned. 
Whatever else was perplexing about his mission, this at least 
was clear, that He turned the light of God on the drab life 
of the common people, and lo and behold! it was a light 
tremulous with the deep colors of pity, and love, and sacri- 
fice.” And John T. Roberts understood Jesus too when he 
sang: 


“Ancestry needn’t disturb my mind; it never is in his thought; 
He was born among men, he lived among men; he shares the 
common lot. 
97 


[V-7] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


Companions he finds in the places of toil; the homes of the 
sick he makes glad. 

He is rich in God’s way of being rich; he blesses the good 
and the bad.” 


Fifth Week, Seventh Day 
One is your Master; and all ye are brethren.—Mctt. 23:8. 4 


In that breath-taking twenty-third chapter of Matthew 
which must have made his hearers gasp (and which still 


stabs awake our sleeping consciences), Jesus said that all these E 


cruel barriers of blood and color, creed and church, class and 
custom and country were built on lies. He said that the true 
life of mankind was to be built upon a full and generous 
recognition of the fact of universal brotherhood. In the 
new dawn the passion of Jesus will sweep away these false 
fences of division. Aristocracy, orthodoxy, exclusiveness, 


bigotry, rampant nationalism—not one of these serves any use- __ 


ful purpose in the kingdom of God. Indeed, they are the 
prime causes of its estoppage. “Intolerance,” says Dr. Fos- 
dick, “is one of the great failures of history!” 

The masterhood of Jesus cannot be a reality until we are 
all brought together as brothers. We must no longer think 
of ourselves as Negroes and whites, respectable and criminal, 
High Church and Low Church, modernist and fundamental- 
ist, acquaintances and strangers—but as brothers and sisters 
under the leadership of the Divine Human. “At that time 
ye were without Christ,” said Paul, “being aliens . . . and 


strangers ... but now in Christ ye are made nigh by the 


blood of Christ. . . . For he is our peace, who hath made both 
one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition be- 
tween us... .” (Ephesians 2: 12-14.) It is easy to say those 
words, but how about living them? 


“We are of Thee, the children of Thy love, 
The brothers of Thy well-beloved Son; 
Descend, O Holy Spirit! like a dove, 
Into our hearts, that we may be as one. 


“We would be one in hatred of all wrong, 
One in our love of all things sweet and fair, : 
08 








BROTHERHOOD IN THE NEW DAY [V-m] 


One with the joy that breaketh into song, 

One with the grief that trembles into prayer, 
One in the power that makes Thy children free 

To follow truth and thus to follow Thee.” 


MEDITATION ON THE MASTER’S THOUGHT 


Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou 
shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger 
of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is 
angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger 
of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, 
Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall 


‘say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. 


Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there 
rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; 
leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first 
be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy 
gift. 

Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in 
the way with him; lest at any time thy adversary deliver 
thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, 
and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou 
shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the 


- uttermost farthing.—Matt. 5:21-26. 


In the next five chapter discussions we shall be consider- 
ing the new ideals of Jesus for the human family. We shall 
see that his spiritual insight is keener, his moral requirements 
greater, and his social standards loftier than those taught in 
the old law. To men of his time his message seemed bold, 
radical, revolutionary. By men of later times his message - 
has- been estimated at its true worth—it is thought of as 
teaching for eternity. Jesus penetrated to the heart of things — 
because he was so human. “He knew what was in man.” 
He possessed a profound knowledge of human nature. He 
had a marvelous understanding of human life. He knew its 
problems; he recognized its capacities. He lived among peo- 
ple so intimately that he came to understand their needs bet- 
ter than anyone before or since. He made it his daily, prayer- 
ful task to relieve human care and sorrow and suffering. He 
opened the door of the Father’s Spirit, and the light that 

99 


[V-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE — ee 


came through illumined life with new hope, new promise, 
new faith. In the illuminating process the law is not lost. 
To be sure, it is filled full with deeper significance ; it becomes 
harder to live up to; it pins morality and religion down to 
fundamentals. We shall see that he means what he says: “I 
am come not to destroy, but to fulfil!” 


I 


One of the most ancient of all laws in the society of man 
Jesus first mentions: Thou shalt not kill. When man emerged 
from the jungle he brought with him vestiges of the old, 
savage, barbaric animal life. In the dim, dark ages before 
law, cannibalism, infant sacrifice, and other forms of homi- 
cide were practiced without qualm. But when man’s social 
conscience developed to the point where he recognized obliga- 
tion toward his fellow-man, blood-letting came as the curse 
of Cain: a brutal, barbaric deed of unbridled selfishness and 
fury. Though Moses announced the divine law against kill- 
ing from Sinai the Israelites went down to the valley of 
Canaan and gloried in killing the Canaanites. Theré seems 
to be an instinct in human nature which tends to overthrow 
the conscience in the face of expediency, explaining slaying 
as an adventurous necessity. Thus George Bernard Shaw 
with his usual keenness describes the first murderer: 

“Cain (to Adam): Still digging? Always dig, dig} dig. 
Sticking in the old furrow. No progress! no advanced ideas! 
no adventures! What should I be if I had stuck to the 
digging you taught me? 

Adam: What are you now, with your shield and spear, 
and your brother’s blood crying from the ground against you? 

Cain: I am the first murderer: you are only the first man. 
Anybody could be the first man: it is as easy as to be the 
first cabbage. To be the first murderer one must be a man 
of spirit!” Sas 
(“Back to Methuselah,” Part I, Act II.) 


Thus it is by clever, yet obviously false, reasoning that we 
explain away the hideous crime of murder. Ancient wars 
with their wholesale slayings, Indian massacres with the hor- 
ror of the tomahawk, and the stories of ferocious cannibal 
tribes seem terrible to us. We read of the leopard-men of 

100 





BROTHERHOOD IN THE NEW DAY. [V-m] 


Africa, described by Albert Schweitzer, the missionary doc- 
tor, organist, and theologian, and we can scarcely believe, 
They go on all fours, real leopard claws bound to hands and 
feet, and tear open the arteries of the throat as the leopard 
does. A magic potion is made from a murdered man’s blood 
and mixed in a human skull. Secretly it is poured into a man’s 
drink; then he is told he is a member of the dread brother- 
hood, and he goes out to lure a brother or sister into the 
hands of the leopard-men who attack and slay. We think 
these things are awful, but right at home in our own so- 
called high civilization we make human life just as cheap. 
The fact that there are thousands of murders in America 
every year, and tens of thousands of lives destroyed by faul- 
ty machinery, careless motor-car driving, and neglect of the 
laborer at his work, shows how little we heed the divine com- 
mand: Thou shalt not kill! 

But more disheartening still are the legalized forms of 
killing! Thus policemen carry guns and clubs and have the 
right to shoot and beat and often slay those who fall into 
their hands. Thus the state has its electric chairs, its gal- 
lows, its lethal chambers where human lives are sacrificed 
on the altar of heathen stupidity. One of the most amazing 
inconsistencies in modern life is the spectacle of the state 
taking the life of a murderer: committing the same crime 
for which it has convicted the criminal! And the arrant 
nonsense which poses for argument in defense of this bar- 
barity is so silly that one can hardly believe it is sincere. 
Thus a recent newspaper editorial says: “Our chief concern 
is with crimes of violence and we shall have a speedy reduc- 
tion in these if we send all murderers to the chair. If the 
chair were inescapable in all murder cases we should vir- 
tually abolish murder, as it has been abolished in Europe.” 
The vaporous quality of such argument is quickly seen when 
it is asked: Since when does killing one murderer prevent 
another man from killing? The deliberate falsity of such 
a proposition is revealed when we find that the general ex- 
perience has been that the number of murders is reduced 
in those states where capital punishment has been abolished! 
Murder has not been abolished, of course, in Europe (as the 
article seems to imply), but wherever it has been almost 
abolished we find that capital punishment has been eliminated. 

a IOI 


[Vin] <. | «THE MASTER'S MESSAGE= Gag 


In other words the mention of Europe in this connection 
proves exactly the opposite proposition from the one the 
editorial writer desired to prove, since three out of every 


four European states have already abolished the electric 


chair and the gallows, and have placed them in the museum 
where they belong, with all the other torture paraphernalia 
of ancient heathenism. 

The attitude of the average man of society toward killing 
done by the state is well illustrated by an acquaintance, active 
in church work, and a man of good sense and fine character. 
He told me of going to the Charlestown prison in Massa- 
chusetts with a group of boys. When they came to the 
death house the warden would not let the boys see the 


dreaded chair. Speaking to me about his experience later he 


said: “I went into the death house alone. It was a grue- 
some feeling that came over me. I certainly would not want 
the job of the electrocutioner, but I believe in capital punish- 
ment!” A room the very sight of which may pervert the 
minds of boys has no place in our civilization. And a deed 
too terrible for the average citizen to do should not be done 
by anybody. The words, Thou shalt not kill, mean just 
what they say. No “ifs” or “ands” or “buts” are permis- 
sible. Man has no right to destroy another human life under 
any circumstances! 

The truth about war is seen when we consider it in the 
light of this divine law. It is the same old curse of Cain, 


pure murder, explained away with specious excuses. The 
instruments of modern warfare are infinitely worse than ever ~ 


before: science has devised them for maximum wholesale 
killing. Aérial bombs, torpedoes, long-range guns firing high- 
explosive shells and shrapnel, mustard-gas and chlorine, rapid- 


fire and machine guns—these clever instruments of modern — 


warfare make ancient slaughter-stories sound like mere 
child’s play. The invention of gunpowder, making possible 
all forms of destructive weapons from six-shooters to huge 
siege guns, has proved mankind’s curse. 


“Is it, O man, with such discordant noises, 
With such accursed instruments as these, 
Thou drownest Nature’s sweet and kindly voices, 
And jarrest the celestial harmonies? ; 
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See ee he 


BROTHERHOOD IN THE NEW DAY _ [V-m] 


“Were half the power that fills the world with terror, 
Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts, 
Given to redeem the human mind from error, 
There were no need of arsenals or forts. 


“The warrior’s name should be a name abhorred! 
And every nation that should lift again 

Its hand against a brother, on its forehead 
Would wear forevermore the curse of Cain!” 


Jesus repeats here in the Sermon on the Mount, with his 
supreme indorsement that it shall never be abrogated, the 
great law that man must not kill. It implies that all life is 
sacred; it declares the fact that man is wisest when he kills 


the least; that nothing must be killed except it minister to 


man’s need of food or clothing or condition of body. Hunt- 
ing for sport that cruelly deprives the dumb beast of life 
unnecessarily, the destruction of anything that breathes, 
wantonly or without cause, is a direct sin against the natural 
law written in the book of life. All nature is a brotherhood, 
and its fundamental sign is, Thou shalt not kill! W. F., in 
the Christian Science Monitor, gives us wholesome philosophy 
which many might well heed: “Lying among the heather in the 
ceilings of a summer night, wi’ the stars blinking overhead 
and the hushing sound of the darkness all aboot ye, wi’ the 
eerie cry of the peewit coming through, the hoot of an owl, 
or maybe the rustle of a rabbit among the whins, scurrying 


from a reavin’ stoat, it’s then I seem to realize best what 


I am and where my true place is. Lonesome? No’ me! All 
nature is whispering to me; the stars aboon, the trees, the 
purlin’ burns. The rough steers in the pasture, the friendly 
horses at the fence, breathe to me the spirit of a brotherhood > 
of which man is but a part.” 


II 


The old law, according to Jesus, is perfectly: right. Killing 
is wrong, and when a man kills he becomes liable to the 
“Gudgment.”’ Killing is a dire evil and when a man does it - 
he must suffer certain penalties of divine justice. The word 
in the Greek is xplots, which may mean “the local court,’ but 

103 


[V-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 
f 


which usually refers to a higher justice, or the judgment of 


God. But the old law does not go deep enough. The laws 
of the nation may stop with the actual killing, but the Great 
All-seeing Father looks upon the heart. Malicious ill-will 
toward a brother has its penalties of divine justice just the 
same as killing. There is a maligntty, says Jesus, which 
murders men as surely as the sword can slay them! There 
is a scorn, a contempt, a disdainful hatred, which injures a 
brother as truly as the thrust of a spear. 7 . 

The very fact that these subtle sins cannot be punished. by 


national law is a clear indication that his meaning 1s spiritual | 


here. The inordinately angry soul is liable to the xpiovs (local 
court) which symbolizes inevitable spiritual punishment. The 
contemptuous soul which cries, Raca (Good-for-nothing), is 


ljable to the ovvyndpeov (sanhedrin) which symbolizes the 


High Court of the Universe. The scornful soul which says, 
Thou Fool, is liable to burial in the yéevva tov mupos, the valley 
of Hinnom (Gehenna) which symbolizes a spiritual hell of 
destruction. The laws of the nation, he is saying, may over- 


look these spiritual misdemeanors of uncalled-for anger, un- 7 


fair contempt, and unbridled scorn but the laws of God do 


not. These sins violate God’s spiritual plan for his children, — 


and they have their unavoidable penalties! 
Just as in Jesus’ day men took attitudes toward one an- 


other which destroyed life, so in our day brotherhood iS 
spoiled by anger, contempt, and scorn. There is a story, bear- 
ing the ear-marks of truth, about a church of the west called — 


“The Church of God,” which would be amusing in this con- 


nection, were it not so tragically reminiscent of the spirit — 
of hostility and division which exists within the fold of — 


Christianity. There happened to be in the congregation two 
factions, which not being able to get along together, finally 
split, and the group which started a new church called them- 
selves “The True Church of God.” This group also quar- 


relled among themselves, and another split followed, with a 
new congregation formed, called “The Only True Church of 


God.’ Thus, with veiled scorn of each other the three hun- 


dred sects of Christianity go their divided way. We see ; 
religion then, not a unifying force, but the world’s worst 


divisive influence, splitting whole communities and whole na- 
tions in twain with angry conflict and scornful hostility. It 
104 


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BROTHERHOOD IN THE NEW DAY [V-m] 


is Protestant against Roman Catholic, Jew against Gentile,. 

Christian against Mohammedan, Buddhist against Confucian-- 

ist, Moslem against Hindu. For this stirring up of anger 

we shall be in danger of divine justice. 

Particularly in the field of race relations we see the blast- 
ing of brotherhood by anger without a cause, and the con- 
tempt and scorn which spring from ignorance. Thus the 
Negro has been a notorious sufferer of racial madness. In 
Florida a woman screamed, Nordic feet came running, a 
Negro was captured, dragged through the streets, and hung.. 
When he was dead the woman calmly explained that all the 
Negro did was to ask her for a glass of water! Behind that 
black injustice is a long trail of race hysteria, the kind for 
which our South is now too famous. But in both North and 
South a Negro is constantly the object of insult. A cultured 
physician buys a home in Detroit and a mob storms his house. 
A refined Negro buys a home in White Plains or Montclair 
and the injured feelings of the community make him feel as 
if he were guilty of murder. A colored minister steps into. 
an elevator in the Senate house at Washington, and he is 
promptly informed that Negroes are not permitted to ride. 
In New Orleans, the pavement ends where the Negro quar- 
ters begin, streets hole-filled and miry, narrow, and ill-smell- 
ing, and dwellings not a bit better than hovels. In Washing- 
ton, Methodist bishops of the North meet for a banquet. They 
are considering missions for that noble church. Three bishops: 
are uninvited—they happen to be black. The explanation 
is that a banquet with Negroes in attendance could not be: 
held in Washington. An international Sunday School Con- 
vention is on in Birmingham. The color line is drawn in the 

- convention hall. The Negroes boycott the meeting. Why did 
it happen? Answer: A big Klan demonstration the day be- 

- fore the conference! “The white man,” said a prominent 

colored leader of the South after the Birmingham fiasco, “is: 

a good teacher of the theory of Christianity, but he is a hell 
of a demonstrator!” 

Christian brotherhood is a Breath theory, but we have 
certainly made a miserable mess of demonstrating it. The 
great so-called Christian nations have just completed a war 
which put ten million bodies in early graves. And we still 
go our way of blind, bigoted racial intolerance and hatred.. 

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[V-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 





Not only the Negroes suffer. Take the Orientals. We mock — 
them as inferiors. Thus a dying Chinaman in one of our 
hospitals was denied a nurse because none would serve him. 
A Filipino is ejected from a barber-shop. A Japanese is 


asked if he*is a Christian. “I was,” he replies, “before I — 


came to America!” Two Chinese laundrymen open a shop — 
in downtown New York. East Side rowdies make life | 
wretched for them by calling them names, stealing things — 
from the shop. One morning a lady comes to leave some ~ 
~ laundry and notices but one man left in the shop. “Good — 
morning, John,” says the lady, “where is the other John?” — 
“He no come any more,” is the reply, “some Clistian gentl- 
mens hit him on the head with a blick.” There are, of course, — 
Christian gentlemen more worthy of the name! But wherever ~ 
we shamefully treat men as “dagoes,” “kikes,’ “hunkies,’ — 
“chinks,” “niggers,” instead of brothers, we are violators of 
a divine law and we are in danger of divine justice. 4 

The problem of brotherhood, of course, is a real problem — 


because there are real root causes for racial prejudice. For — 
one thing, many races actually do know how to make them- — 
selves most obnoxious. The hordes of immigrants who have — 


overrun New York City in recent years, materially degrad- — 
ing living conditions and vastly complicating the crime prob- — 
lem, are a case in point. All of us have known grasping 
Hebrews, overbold Negroes, treacherous Italians. And no ~ 


race has added more to the brotherhood problem than the — 


English with their notorious conceit. Two illustrations are — 
enough. We quote St. John Ervine, English novelist: “We 
English are a more individual people than the Americans. 
... We cannot be stunned into accepting things because — 
they are incessantly repeated to us.” And the braying Ches-— 
terton is always typical: “Exactly in so far as America ~ 
seems to be leading the world, or supposes that it is leading — 
the world, or is in any sense pressing upon or changing the © 
world, it is the pressure of an inferior upon a superior; and — 
it is simply, solely and utterly to be resisted.’ There are — 
some things in the world which are real causes for the loss 
of brotherhood. Even we Americans must have our bold — 
braggadocio, our swaggering, mammonistic pride, our blatant — 
nationalism which disturbs our friends in other nations. Our — 
Christian theories have been grand; our demonstration of — 


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BROTHERHOOD IN THE NEW DAY _ [V-m] 


tolerant brotherhood has been woefully weak; if this weak- 
ness continues we shall be in danger of the hell fires of de- 
struction. 


Iil 


Brotherhood is not only marred by religious and racial 
attitudes, but more obviously, in most communities, by unfair 
industrial situations, which make life miserable for millions. 
Degrading poverty is a tragic fact, but for hundreds of years 
the rich, the fashionable, the well-to-do have been dismissing 
it all with a wave of the hand, saying that the masses are 
what they are by virtue of their own laziness, their intemper- 
ance, their lack of thrift. What is this but the old contemptu- 
ous phrase which Jesus so strongly condemns, ‘“Raca—good- 


_for-nothing—worthless—poor trash!’ As a matter of fact 


one of the truest tests of the spirit of Christian brotherhood 
is whether or not we care for men, women, and children 
without regard to geographical or class lines! 

If Jesus could stand at a vantage-point today near any of 


the great cities, what would be his feeling as he saw the 
great, weltering, squalid slums, rotten with the foul air of 


many hovels? Would he say what the Rev. Dr. Guthrie once 
said as he viewed Edinburgh’s “East Side’: “A beautiful 
field—a beautiful field for demonstrating the power of the 
gospel!” ? No! he would say: “A festering sore on the 
face of society!” and he would set about in some sane way to 
redeem the depravity of those in the “submerged tenth.” He 
would go to Passaic and demand fair wages for the foreign 


_mill-workers, many of whom are struggling along with their 


families on something like twenty dollars a week or less. 
He would go to the great steel mills and see to it that the 
fat and false philanthropists, who press their wine of life 
from the crushed, weary, exhausted bodies of mill-laborers, 
pay more attention to the human needs and less to the fin- 
ancial gains. He would see the young men in the hazardous 


coal mines of Pennsylvania, getting -for their vital work 


less than 63 cents a ton on the coal they bring out of the 
black hole of the earth, and his rebuking indignation would 


rise. He would stand at the factory gate to watch girls and 


children going to work at seven o’clock in the morning, young- 
sters who should be in school or at home or out in the fields 
107 


[V-m] > THE MASTER’S MESSAGE ' 


at play, and his great soul would groan with compassion and 
sympathy. 

It is the injustice of the job situation which works its havoc 
so terribly among the poor. They must work to live. But 
they cannot ‘work where or how they please. Their job 
(which ought to be permanent and of such a nature as to 
bring the joy and satisfaction of work well done, and leave 
leisure enough for health and home) is at the mercy of 
scheming capitalists who care nothing for the worker but 
only for the keeping down of wages and the perfecting of 
profit efficiency. Walter Wyckoff gives a Chicago experience 
which reflects truthfully the condition of all too many of the 
workers: “Many of the men were so weakened by the want 
and hardship of the winter that they were no longer in con- 
dition for effective labor. Some of the bosses who were in 
need of added hands were obliged to turn men away because 
‘of physical incapacity. One instance of this I shall not soon 
forget. It was when I overheard, early one morning at a 
factory gate, an interview between a would-be laborer and 
a boss. I knew the applicant for a Russian Jew, who had at 
home an old mother and a wife and two children to support. 


He had had intermittent employment throughout the winter e 


in a sweater’s den, barely enough to keep them all alive, and 
after the hardships of the cold season, he was again in des- 
perate straits for work. The boss had all but agreed to take 
him on for some sort of unskilled labor, when, struck by the 
cadaverous look of the man, he told him to bare his arm. 
Up went the sleeve of his coat and his ragged flannel shirt, 
exposing a naked arm with the muscles nearly gone, and the 
blue-white transparent skin stretched over sinews and the 
outlines of the bones. Pitiful beyond words was his effort 
to give a semblance of strength to the biceps which rose 


faintly to the upward movement of the forearm. But the _ 


boss sent him off with an oath and a contemptuous laugh; 
and I watched the fellow as he turned down the street, fac- 
ing the fact of his starving family with a despair at his 
heart which only a mortal can feel and no mortal tongue can 
speak.” Another tells how these wretched live: “In a room 
twelve by eight, and five and a half feet high, nine persons 
slept and prepared their food. . . . In another room, lo- 
‘cated in a dark cellar, without screens or partitions, were 
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BROTHERHOOD IN THE NEW DAY _ [V-m] 


“together two men with their wives and a girl of fourteen, two 
single men and a boy of seventeen, two women and four boys. 
—nine, ten, eleven, and fifteen years old—fourteen persons. 
in all.’ Thus one part of humanity rots while the other 
grows rich. And it is wicked employment conditions which. 
push these folk deep, deep down to the slimy pit of the war- 
rens of the poor! 

We go on our easy way, wondering why the Kingdom of 
God isn’t here, wondering why peace and brotherhood are so 
far from realization, when all about us is the sorrow and. 
suffering of the hosts in the shadow. Woolman, in his 
“Journal,” tells how we are all caught in the great river of 
wrong: “Being then desirous to know who I was, I saw 
a mass of matter of a dull gloomy color between the south 
and the east, and was informed that this mass was human 
beings in as great misery as they could be and live; and that 
I was mixed with them, and that henceforth I might not con- 
sider myself as a distinct or separate being.” The false op- 
timists of Satan may not be able to say F. C. Boden’s lines, 
but those who have the heart of the Christ will find them 
congenial : 


“How can I sing while others. weep 
And groan beneath their travailing, 
And cry a God who’s fast asleep 

. And hears them not—how can [ sing? 


“How can I sing when I’ve no salve 
For putrid sore and deadly sting? 
And people sleep in rags, and starve, 
And will not wake—how can I sing?” 


Does not the attitude of Romain Rolland sound very much 
like that of the Master?: “The edifice of glory and wealth 
which mounts to the skies has been built up on a basis of 
crime. . . . At a fated hour, which may sound a little sooner 
or a little later, moral retribution arrives—implacable. . 
The punishment is pitiless as was the crime. ... The op- 
pressors have so closely entwined their fate with that of the 
oppressed that it is no longer possible for them to disengage 
it without destruction. . . . White civilization as a whole 
is heading toward catastrophe.” 

3 100: 


[V-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE ie 


Let us glance back at the final punishment which Jesus re- 
ferred to. It is to be cast into the yéeva tov mupés. In all 
Jewish literature this phrase indicates the type of punish- 
ment which will be the reward of the wicked and godless. 
But it stands for an actual, historic, geographical place. And 
when we know what the place was like the symbolism is 


much clearer. It was a place called in Jesus’ day “Gehenna,” a 


(originally “ge ben hinnom’—Aramaic, “gehinom’) a deep 
cavity or valley southwest of Jerusalem. There, during the 
reigns of Ahaz, Manasseh, Jehoiakim, and others, human 
beings were burned alive. The same ill-fated spot was 
cursed by the prophet Jeremiah and called “the valley of 
slaughter.” The refuse of the city of Jerusalem was there 
deposited for many years together with the lifeless bodies 
of the friendless or condemned criminals. There fires con- 
stantly burned amongst the rubbish; there foul odors arose 
from the decay of many bodies; there skulls and bones and ~ 
the scoria of centuries were piled in one smouldering mass. — 
This terrible symbol of Gehenna, then, Jesus uses to de- 
scribe what awful spiritual retribution will overtake the man 


or nation which persists in killing brothers with contempt, a 


murdering men with malice, and slaying them with scorn. 
It is a frightful prediction. But the centuries have, and will, 
prove it true. The words of James Alvord reflect the opera- 
tion of this inevitable spiritual law: z 
“He tramples out the wine-press of his wrath; 
He puts the mighty down from their high seat; 
Time-rotted tyrannies topple at his feet; 
Gaunt, discrowned specters flit before his path. 
Their doom was in his word 
When first Judea heard 
Of brotherhood. Kings scuttle at his nod, 
Blown down black battles by the breath of God! 


“The night brims up with hate and misery; 
As from the ground, at each thin blast of fire, 
Gleam dead phosphoric eyes in deathless ire. 
The hosts snatch freedom from their butchery. 
. Dead—no lords they fear, 
Dead—their blue lips jeer. ; 
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BROTHERHOOD IN THE NEW DAY  [V-m] 


Their cross, and his, drives on the smash of things. 
The Carpenter builds scaffolds for the Kings!” 


IV 


From a lost document, called the Gospel According to the 
siebrews, translated by Jerome and attributed to Matthew by 
the sect of the Nazarenes, some of the Fathers quote a splen- 
did little fragment which might easily be a true word of the 
Master: “Never,” he is reported as saying, “be glad, but 
when you have looked upon your brother in love.’ If some 
of us, kept that saying literally, we should probably very sel- 
dom be glad. And if, as we should, we took Jesus seriously 
here in this Sermon on the Mount, some of us might sel- 
dom go to church. For what Jesus says about those who 
come to church to worship God while all the time in their 
hearts they are hating someone else is a cutting and deep 
challenge to real brotherhood. If you come to the altar of 
the church with your gifts of money or prayer or worship, 
knowing that somewhere there is a brother whose love you 
have failed to win, go your way at once and be reconciled 
to him before you do business with God! We think that 
our church “piosity” will cover our multitude of sins. Never! 
If we steal and slander and scold and oppress and fight dur- 
ing the week and then go to church on Sunday, thinking that 
rose-water theology will take care of it all, we are hopelessly 
fooled. A man can’t love God at all unless he loves his 
neighbor first, because the best he knows of God is right 
there in his neighbor. “You shall not,” said Joseph (and 
we can imagine God as saying exactly the same thing) “you 
shall not see my face except your brother be with you!” 
(aeons 45 °4.). 

One of the most pathetic pictures in the New Testament 
is that found in the story of the Prodigal Son. The prodigal 
was returning from debauchery; the elder son was returning 
from work well-done in the fields. The prodigal had been 
disobedient ; the elder son was the image of diligent obedience. 
The prodigal came back with a stained character; the elder 
brother could assert that he had a perfectly clear conscience. 
The prodigal had wandered far from the father; the elder 
brother had stayed close to the father. Yet how differently 

III 


[V-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE " 


the story ends from what we should expect. The prodigal 
has come home, truly repentant, with no hate in his heart 
for anybody, and when the curtain goes down he reposes in e 
the very center of the father’s love. The elder brother 
is precise but not brotherly, shrewd but not generous, good 
but not noble, diligent but hard. One exquisite touch makes 
plain his real character: the word “brother” is never on his 
lips. “He was angry and he would not go in”’ And when 
the curtain goes down he is standing in the outer darkness, 
estranged from the happy throng in his father’s house, em- 
bittered, repelling the tenderest affection of his father, and 
at the last, by his own hardness of heart, ‘lost! 

A delegate returning from a world conference of nations 
in Europe gives us a hint as to how God wants us to work 
out the spirit of brotherhood in our modern world. “The 
meeting in England was a great privilege,’ he wrote. “We 
caught a glimpse of the thought and spirit of nearly forty 
nations. There was wide divergence of opinion along theo- 
logical lines, but we were united in our eagerness to find 
and do God’s will. . . . All were agreed that complete equality 
between races, nationalities, and religions is a fact arising 
from the Fatherhood of God!” What can Jesus mean but 
this: All the nations must come in before any nation can 
come to God. All the races must come in before any race 
can know God. All the religions must join hands before any 
one can know God fully. For each carries a stone that will 
fit into the temple of brotherhood. Before Christ can make 
known to the children of men his world-wide plan for human- 
ity’s redemption, each and every soul must be brought to- 
gether with a brother, each and every nation must be recon- 
ciled to its estranged brother nation! 


Vv 


The law upon which all successful communities are based 
is the law of cooperation. The highest flower in d.: plant 
kingdom is that found in the order, Composite, and its fu- 
ture is assured in nature’s world because its flowers have 
learned to live in groups. The future of human society is 
assured only as the fundamental principle of reciprocity is 
more and mcre incorporated in our common life. The co- 

LT2 





BROTHERHOOD IN THE NEW DAY [V-m] 


operative commonwealth makes for the highest level of life 
for all. Ignorance is balanced by wisdom; weakness is bal- 


‘anced by strength; falsehood is leavened by truth; ugliness 


is eliminated by besuty. As Edgar Guest has said: 


“He who is wise is the strength of the fool, the strong is the 
guide to the weak; 

As a man and his wife we are bound in our race, and one 
common glory we seek; 

And the law is our tie, and who laughs at the bond or shrinks 
from the duty it asks, . 

Shall find with the morning the men of the field unwilling 
to go to their tasks.” 


The indispensability of cooperation in any form of civiliza- 
tion is a fact. Cooperation or starvation is a fact: twenty 
thousand men must join their forces to put the loaf upon 
our table; thousands more are needed to bring our meat, 
our vegetables, fruit, sugar, coffee, tea, spices, milk, butter, 
eggs and other edibles. Cooperation or poverty is a fact: 
houses, property, money, possessions, all of the things which 
go to make up modern life are but the sweat and blood of 
cooperative labor, and wherever you see degrading poverty 
or want, be very sure someone has failed to cooperate as they 
should. Cooperation or anarchy is a fact: far-reaching in 
our day is the fraternity-habit, Odd Fellows, Masons, Elks, 
Rotary, Lions, Kiwanis, American Legion, I. W. W., K. K. K., 
Knights of Columbus, Indians, Royal Arcanum, Foresters, 
and so on; but when these societies, founded for the frater- 
nity of man, become clannish, narrow, self-satisfied, thinking 
of themselves as over against some other body, stirring up 
antagonism and evil rivalries, and deriding full cooperation, 
they are sowing to the wind of anarchy and they will reap 
the whirlwind! Cooperation or chaos is a fact: nations are 
as much parts of divine order as electrons are parts of an 
atom or as planets are parts of the solar system; they must 
take their surrendered autonomy as a part of the higher law of 
harmony; when nations go off on a tangent of self-desire, 
failing to consider the law of the whole, they are sure to dis- 
turb the order of the world, and a chaos such as the world 
saw in the years 1914-1918 is the result. 

113 


[V-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE . ~ et 


Jesus is speaking, therefore, of a universal law, when he 
advises us to agree with the adversary as quickly as possible. 
For if we insist on refusing reconciliation we shall get con- 
flict and not cooperation, a contest and not a contract, a bat- 
tle and not a brotherhood. A lawsuit is always a dangerous — 
process as many can testify, like old John Pomfret: 


“Lawsuits ’d shun, with as much studious care, 
As I would dens where hungry lions are; 

And rather put-up injuries, than be 

A plague to him who’d be a plague to me. 

I yalue quiet at a price too great 

To give for my revenge so dear a rate; 

For what do we by all our bustle gain, 

But counterfeit delight for real pain?” 


But getting into a jam with the law courts of earth is as 
nothing compared with getting into a smash with the holy, 
ordained law processes of the Universe. If you persist in 
making the universe judge your foolish, intractable rebellion, — 
it will go hard with you. Verily, says Jesus, if you will not 


be reconciled, if you will not cooperate in time, then there 


is no escape but for you to pay with the last, uttermost farthing 
for your folly! How true the lines of Edwin ‘Markham: 


“The crest and crowning of all good, 
Life’s final star, is Brotherhood; 
For it will bring again to Earth 
Her long-lost Poesy and Mirth; 
Will send new light on every face, 
A kingly power upon the race. 
And till it come, we men are slaves, 
And travel downward to the dust of graves.’ 


VI 


The way that points toward peace and the brotherhovd of a 
the new and better day is the way of Jesus. It is the way 
that will not kill, that will not stoop to scornful anger, thar 
will not falsely worship while woe is in the heart of a brother, 
and that will not resort to the court of strife to try to settle 


differences. It is the way that will dissolve disagreements 


in the universal solvent of mutual understanding, mutual 
114 . 





BROTHERHOOD IN THE NEW DAY _ [V-m] 


sympathy, and mutual appreciation. It is the way that is 
built not on the shifting sands of private opinion (which 
never will permit of uniformity) but upon the firmer founda- 
tion of brotherly tolerance, brotherly service. Society needs 
no sudden shock of selfish communism to solve the increas- 
ing problem of capital vs. labor (which Whiting Williams 
says is worse than at any time in history) but only brother- 
hood in the way of Jesus. -Society needs no purging of re- 
ligion to stop the conflict of the churches, but more real re- 
ligion, the gentle, tolerant spirit of the master. Society needs 
not some super-state to make the hideous warring to cease 
on our fair earth, only the reciprocal recognition of the na- 


_-tion’s right to live and let live. 


And one of the noblest illustrations of this saving spirit 
of tolerance is afforded, not by a Christian, but by a Moslem 
emperor of the sixteenth century, Akbar, ruler of Hindustan, 
and builder of the famous mosque of Futehpur-Sikir. Mem- 
ber of the fold of Mohammed, as he was, this noble man saw 
the vision of international brotherhood back there four cen- 
turies ago. He admitted the imperfections of his own religion 
and freely recognized the excellencies of others. He sum- 
moned a Portuguese missionary, Padre Rodolpho of Goa, to 
expound Christianity to him, and all his life he strove to 
establish in his empire a universal brotherhood where pagans, 
Moslems, and Christians might dwell in perfect understand- 
ing. Indeed, the spirit of our Lord appears often in unex- 
pected spots. No wonder Tennyson wrote in ‘“Akbar’s 
Dream” : 


“TI cull from every faith and race the best 
And bravest soul for counsellor and friend. 
I loathe the very name of infidel. 

I stagger at the Koran and the sword; 

I shudder at the Christian and the stake; 
Yet ‘Alla,’ says their sacred book, ‘is love,’ 
And when the Goan Padre quoting Him, 
Issa Ben Mariam, his own prophet, cried, 
‘Love one another, little ones’ and ‘bless’ 
Whom? even ‘your persecutors’! there methought 
The cloud was rifted by a purer gleam 
Than glances from the sun of our Islam.” 


+ ~- - 
i : 
~/ 


[V-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


When that spirit gleams from the life of man, there indeed 
is a purer light of hope than man has ever seen! It is the 
gleam that comes from the lips of a Paul Harrison when in 
loving sympathy he understands the Arab: ‘The world needs 
the Arab. Perhaps no race has a richer contribution to make 
than he.” It is the gleam of generous understanding that 
comes from the heart of a Cadman: “The most surprising 
national transformation since the World War is the recon- 
struction of Turkey. . . . The Angora government has 
abolished the Caliphate, declared itself against polygamy, made 
civil marriage obligatory, adopted the Swiss civil code, done 
away with the rule of Moslem theologians, and mapped out a 
program of general reform which brings the Turkish people 
within the pale of civilization.” It is the sensitive, discrimi- 
nating insight of a Hubert Herring: “The good American 
boy must know how the Mexican boy feels about things. | 
He must know what that ‘Mexican boy thinks about his flag, 
his language, his customs, his people. He must know how 
that Mexican boy thinks about America, about American at- 
tempts to secure Mexican land and oil, about the war between 
the United States and Mexico eighty years ago. . .. It 
means that the American boy must. find some way of under- 
standing how the Japanese boy feels about things. This is 
difficult. We must shift the emphasis in education. It is 
vastly more to be desired that we should know and appre- 
ciate the culture and viewpoint of Japan than that we should 
know all about ancient Rome. Caesar is dead. Japan isn’t.” 
It is the spirit of a Lucius Porter, seeking earnestly to appre- 
ciate fully our Chinese brothers: “In the intimate friendships 
of the Christian circle there should be a truer and deeper 


understanding of alien cultures. . . . The Christian spirit 
should be more ready to discern the strong characteristics 
of brother races. . . . There is a contribution to be ex- 


pected from the Chinese. Not only a contribution to world 
humanity, but a real contribution to the human understanding 
of Christ and of God. We must believe that China’s long 
training in family ethics under the inspiration of her great 
_ prophet Confucius has been a preparation intended by God 
to make possible a special interpretation of Him whom all 
men call Father.” 

When the evangel-song of human comradeship begins to 

11h 








BROTHERHOOD IN THE NEW DAY [V-m] 


sing in a human heart, it quickens a flaming ecstasy of ad- 
venturous friendship in whosoever hears. Out of such has 
come the Fellowship of Youth for Peace, the Fellowship of 
Reconciliation, the World-Council of Churches, The World 
Student Christian Federation. It sings in the heart of an 
Elbert Hubbard, and we read over the doorway of the Roy- 
crofters of East Aurora: “The Institution of the Dear Love 
of Comrades.” It sings in the heart of Stevenson, and we 
find the Samoan savages rewarding his kindly friendship 
by building to his house the road they called “The Way of 
the Grateful Heart.” It sings in the sympathetic soul of a 
Walt Whitman, and we get a hymn of understanding: 


“This moment yearning and thoughtful, sitting alone, 

It seems to me there are other men in other lands yearning 
and thoughtful; 

It seems to me I can look over and behold them in Germany, 
Italy, France, Spain, 

Or far, far away, in China, or in Russia or Japan, talking 
other dialects ; 

And it seems to me if I could know those men 

I should become attached to them as I do to men in my own 
lands; 

O! I know we should be brethren and lovers, 

I know I should be happy with them!” 


Some day there will be an open road across the world, built 
of loving hearts laid bare and close together until their warm 
blood beats in unison—welded close in indissoluble bonds of 
true brotherhood, which is made of tender-heartedness, mutual 
helpfulness, unfailing sympathy, understanding like that of 
Jesus ! ay ; 

“IT am not an Athenian,” said the great Socrates, “nor even 
a Greek, but I am a citizen of the world!” And standing in 
Athens, the home city of Socrates, the great Apostle said: 
“God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell 
on all the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26); and at another 
time Paul said: “There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumci- 
sion nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; 
Diltecutist, is all, -and_in all!” (Col.:3:11)s “And ait 
was the Master himself who sounded the great keynote of 

117 


[V-q] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 

‘ 
world brotherhood when he exclaimed: “And I, if I be lifted — 
up, will draw all men unto me!” (John 12:32). As citizens 
of the world, then, brothers of the blood of God, bearing in 
our very bodies the spirit of the great Brother, and drawn — 
together by the majesty of his sacrifice at the foot of his | 
Cross, let the children of men be bound in that undying fel- — 
lowship which is the world’s supreme, yea, and only, hope! ~ 
Elizabeth Barrett Browning has the beautiful vision: “3 






“No more Jew or Greek then—taunting 
Nor taunted; no more England nor France! Pr 
But one confederate brotherhood planting 3 
One flag only, to mark the advance ; 
Onward and upward, of all humanity. 
For civilization perfected 

Is fully developed Christianity !” 


God, we thank Thee that where human hands touch in 
brotherhood there is heaven. Save us from every anger and — 
every evil thought and word and act which would harm our 
friendship. Soon, O, soon, dear Father, bring all Thy chil- | 
dren closer in the fraternity of mutual understanding, in the 
spirit of our elder Brother, Amen. 


LIFE QUESTIONS 


1. In what respects was the circle of Jesus and his friends 
like a college fraternity? a mill-workers’ union? a lodge of 
Masons? a Christian Endeavor Society? In what respects 
unlike these? 

2. What good, if any, does capital punishment accom- 
plish? ¥ 

3. “We hunt down a murderer like a rat, while we let go 
entirely free the big bankers and capitalists who are really 
murdering thousands by depriving them of wages, leisure, and 
health.” What truth, if any, lies behind such a statement? 

4. “If you take 10,000 working girls picked at random 
and 10,000 girls from the college campuses, you will find the 
alert minds and brave hearts in the factory girls.” (Lillian 
Herstein, Instructor, City College of Chicago). Do you be- 
lieve it? If so, explain why; if not, why not? | 

118 


BROTHERHOOD IN THE NEW DAY _ [V-q] 


5. “He is beneath my contempt; he has played the ass 
and the fool; I will have nothing to do with him.” Can this 
ever be a right Christian attitude to take? 

6. “That church is heretical, it is split off from the only 
true church, and all in it are lost. Only those under the pope 
(only those who have been immersed and who believe in the 
whole Book) can be saved. All other religions are evil, de- 
graded, untrue. There is but one true religion and that is 
ours!” Point out the fallacies in such statements. 

7. Usher: . “We reserve these back seats'in the corner for 
strangers.” 

_ Frock-coated Plutocrat: “We reduced our stenographers 
to twelve dollars a week yesterday. Our dividends are up 
to twenty, now!” 

Fat, silk-gloved Lady: “I gave her a good piece of my 
mind. She won’t get over it for a while either!” 

Sleek Business. Man: “I put over a fine deal the other 
day. Sold a nice fool that bungalow I had on my hands so 
dong!” (Overheard in the First Church of Christ, Jonesville, 
ae) 

How .much of the Holy Spirit might you find in a congrega- 
tion made up of Christians such as these? 

8. Name God’s custodians who take care of those who 

break the law of brotherhood. 

g. Is the greed of a profiteer or a wage-slave driver as bad 
a sin as that of adultery or deliberate burglary? 

10, Analyze the cause of racial intolerance, and note some 
ways world brotherhood may be brought about. 


119 





CHAPTER VI 


The New Marriage 


DAILY READINGS 


One of the holiest words in our language has come to be 
used in a rather free way so that its meaning is not definite  _ 
but diffuse. It is necessary for us, therefore, to make clear | 
at the outset of this chapter the area of thought compassed ee: 
by the word “love.” This word is commonly used in a purely {- 
spiritual sense, denoting an attitude of unlimited good-will | 


which one has toward his fellow men. But when used in a 
physico-spiritual sense the word has another and quite dif- ; : 
ferent meaning, namely that of the affection existing between _ 4 


a man and a woman. Notice that in both cases thé word has ~ 
deep spiritual connotations, the chief difference being that 
in the physico-spiritual sense of the word, sex attraction plays’ 
a prominent part. In the rest of this book (primarily Chap- 
ters V, VIII, and IX) where “love” is mentioned, divine good- 
will is meant; in this chapter we shall think of it as divine 
good-will plus sex affection. 

The two great poles of being, according to Anatole France, 
are love and hunger. If this be true then it is not hard for 
us to understand why the two most insistent problems of life 
are the economic problem and the sex problem. In olden 
days sex problems slept restlessty under a hard, cold, cruel, 
rigid crust of ignorance, suppression, and intolerance. The 
dawn of a brighter, freer day upon the world has melted the 
frigid sod of the colder Puritanism until a new and beautiful 
spirit is rising in the hearts of the new generation. The in- 
crease in the number of divorces, the changing home life, 
the unusual frankness on matters of sex among the youth 

120 





THE NEW MARRIAGE [VI-1] 


of our day may not be, as many seem to think, signs of a 
retrogressing world, but rather incidental tokens of a fresh 
springtime in social progress when high and noble and true 
ideals are replacing the old false and ignoble ones. 


Sixth Week, First Day 


From the beginning of the creation God made them male 
and female.—Mark 10:6. 


All creation from top to bottom and from beginning to end 
seems to be characterized by an inner urge which perpetuates 
and propagates life and its environment. As the electron with 
its electrically charged particles rotating about a central axis 
seems to be the fundamental principle upon which the struc- 
ture of matter is based, so sex attraction, a truly electrical 
process, seems to be the device by which the continuing cycle 
of life is secured. It is true that all of the bacteria, most 
of the lower algz, and the protozoa possess simple methods 
of reproduction wherein sex plays no part. But as life-forms 
mount higher and higher on the scale of being we find that 
sex comes to play a larger and larger part. The differentia- 
tion of living units, therefore, into separate male and female 
forms represents a high stage in God’s creative program! 
The seed, which is the product of the union of male and 
female cells, is the wonderful device by which practically all 
of life’s higher forms are perpetuated. Parthenogenesis and 
vegetative reproduction occur in many of the higher plants 
and animals, but it is notable that in the highest living form 
of creation, man, the only means of perpetuation is the union 
of male and female forms. 
~ That man should be attracted to woman and woman to man 
is as inevitable as the rising of the sun, the visit of the bee 
to the flower, the singing of the lark, or the spark that leaps 
between the positive and negative poles of an electromagnet. 
They are drawn together through all creation, male to fe- 
male, and it seems to be as much a-part of God’s way of 
working in the world as anything we can well imagine. “From 
the very beginning,’ says Jesus, “God made them male and 
female.” And man accepting God’s arrangements cannot 
help but see behind them the purpose of the Infinite Will. 

121 


[VI-2] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE t 


Charlotte Eaton gives us in noble words the operation of this 
divine law: 


“Happiness—that word conveys no idea of the joy that each 
senses in the presence of the other, 

It is more—it is the fulfilment of that which God saw when 
he created Man and Woman, 

A Power that is as strong as the law of gravitation, 

As resistless as the coming in of the tide, 

As necessary as the turning of the earth on its axis,— 

It is the perfection of that harmony in which is enfolded all 
the harmonies of the life of the Universe, 

That Law of Love—that is its own SINE ETS and that 
rules all Infinity, ° 

Before which every human substitute has no weight or 
reality.” 


Sixth Week, Second Day 


For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, 
and cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh’: 
so then they are no more twain, but one flesh— Mark 
10: 7-8. 


We have seen the sex relation as a God-ordained biological 
method to perpetuate and develop life on our earth. We now — 
move on to a logical and vital deduction from this fact: 
if the Almighty Power which orders the constellations has 
provided this necessary function of sex its exercise is not the = 
commission of sin but the natural and inevitable performance a 

’ 


‘ 
Pe Ae eel OF en ee wt 


of divine duty! e 
In many minds, however, the old superstition of the un- ~~ 
qualified sinfulness of sex lingers. To primitive ideas, per- 
haps, inherited from our past, this unfortunate attitude may 
be due. Even in our Bible we find remnants of an old view 
of love between man and woman, which, in our modern day, 
no longer can be considered sane. . 
We read of the first parents, Adam and Eve, who before 
sex knowledge are naked and unashamed, while after sex — 
knowledge they are cursed and driven from the garden; and — 
the general impression we gather is that their children are 
the product of their sinfulness (Gen. 2:4). We read the 
122 - 





“s 9 ee es ol, 


THE NEW MARRIAGE [VI-2] 


Psalms, and we hear the Psalmist reflecting accurately the 
accepted attitude of his day: “In sin “did my mother con- 
ceive me!” (Psalm 51:5). We turn to the New Testament 
and there too we find recorded the current belief that natural 
generation is somehow unclean, unholy, and soiled with the 
taint of sin. Paul certainly gives us this impression (I Cor. 
7); and the beautiful but legendary story of the Virgin Birth 
is clearly an effort to separate the sublime divinity of Jesus’ 
character from the taint of natural birth. 

On earth or in heaven there is nothing more beautiful or 
holy than the consummation of awakened love. No blossom 
more fair, no fragrance more sweet, no witchery of art more 
exquisite, no inventive genius more marvelous than the dawn- 
ing of a new and infinite human soul out of the bosom of 
holy wedlock. 

To be ashamed of sex is to pervert God’s own gift. To 
distort, misuse, minimize, or depreciate this divine relation is 
to ruin the most pure, the most harmonious, and the most 
wonderful function the Creator has given his children. Ser 
love, rightly used, is the keynote of the heart’s highest happt- 
ness, What more perfectly can picture the divinity of man’s 
love for woman than Longfellow’s exquisite conclusion of 
“The Courtship of Miles Standish”: 


“Onward the bridal procession now moved to their new habita- 
tion, 

Happy husband and wife, and friends conversing together. 

Pleasantly murmured the brook, as they crossed the ford in 
the forest, 

Pleased with the image that passed, like a dream of love 
through its bosom, . 

Tremulous, floating in air, o’er the depths of the azure 


abysses. 

Down through the golden leaves the sun was pouring his 
splendors, 

Gleaming on purple grapes, that, from branches above them 
suspended, 


-Mingled their odorous breath with the balm of the pine and 
the fir-tree, 


Wild and sweet as the clusters that grew in the valley of 
Eshcol. 
123 


[VI-3] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 4 


Like a picture it seemed of the primitive, pastoral ages, 

Fresh with the youth of the world, and recalling Rebecca 
and Isaac, 

Old and yet ever new, and simple and beautiful always, 

Love immortal and young im the endless succession of lovers. 

So through the Plymouth woods passed onward the bridal 
procession.” 


Sixth Week, Third Day 


What therefore God hath joined together, let not man 
put asunder.—Mark 10: 9. 


At a fashionable wedding I once heard an audience twitter 
with amusement over an unfortunate but curious mistake 
made by the officiating clergyman. He raised his hand and 
said over the blushing bride and smiling bridegroom: “Whom 
God hath put asunder, let no man join together!” Behind 
that unintended mistake there lies a wealth of truth. By 
their very nature God hath ordained that man and woman 
shall come together and be one flesh; but there are people 
in this world who are constitutionally unfitted to be man and 
wife. The “priest” or the “church” may put them together 
by going through the motions of a ceremony, but if God has 
produced them as incompatible personalities, then they should 
not be united: “Whom God hath put asunder, let no man 
join together!” For not one couple in a hundred, racially, 
physically, and temperamentally unfitted for one another, can 
surmount the obstacles and win through to a contented married 
life, let alone a radiantly happy one! 

We often hear the marriage system of Europe and the Far 
East criticized, because there parents frequently pick mates 
for their children. But quite often this system works out 
better than the haphazard marrying of the West. Parents, 
ministers, and society let young people rush into ill-considered 
and sudden marriages which frequently end disastrously. 
Little serious consideration is given to the vital question: Are 
they truly and divinely fitted for one another? It is difficult to 
lay down hard and fast rules, but generally speaking it is safe 
to say that a lifetime of disagreement may result if two hot- 
tempered people marry, if the inborn conservative marries the 

124 


athe 


7 


THE NEW MARRIAGE [VI-3] 


inborn progressive, if the temperamentally nervous marries the 
temperamentally nervous, if the naturally selfish marries the 
naturally selfish, There are some lives which naturally 
produce, when brought together, the torch of discord. The 
engagement should be a testing time when the man and 
woman should frankly face together the question whether or 
not they have it in them to make a concordant household. 
Natural aftinity should be the basis for marriage! 

The perfect congeniality of true love is, of course, a rare 
gem, But it is unquestionably the finest and best gift of life, 
and all pains should be taken to approximate it. They are 
true lovers where every faculty in the one finds a responsive 
faculty in the other, where the moral sense of the one is 
enriched by the answering moral sense of the other, where 
the thoughts, tendencies, and tastes of the one are in tune 
with the thoughts, tendencies, and tastes of the other, where 
the spiritual hopes, aims, and purposes are mutual, where 
the sweet and pure social affections of the one are fed and 
supplemented and satisfied by the soul of the other. They 
are truly lovers “whose concordant, concurrent beings are like 
two parts of music, rising, and floating, and twining, and 
mingling to make one harmonious whole!” What earthly 
bliss can compare with the beautiful and superbly happy 
unions of the Brownings, the Rossettis, the Hawthornes, 
General and Mrs. Booth, and M. and Mme. Curie? In gen- 
eral it has seemed, but this is only a guess, that perfect 
harmony was more nearly reached when physical opposites 
and spiritual similarities were united. Certain it is that 
_ somewhere in the world there is one woman for one man, and 

happy, wondrously happy, are those God-destined partners 
when they find each other. ? 


“Two shall be born the whole wide world apart, 
And speak in different tongues, and have no thought 
Each of the other’s being, and no heed; 
And these o’er unknown seas to unknown lands 
Shall cross, escaping wreck, defying death; 
And all unconsciously shape every act 
And bend each wandering step to this one end— 
That one day out of darkness they shall meet 
And read life’s meaning in each other’s eyes!” 
125 


[VI-4] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


Sixth Week, Fourth Day 


And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of 
Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: and both Jesus 
was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.—John 2: 1-2. 


When in the army I recall conversing with a young “buddy” 
who was engaged to be married. In marriage he could see 
nothing but the physical satisfactions it brought. Such is the 
unfortunate attitude of many. The structure of marriage is, 
in many cases, erected on a very low plane. Sometimes in 
meadows one sees larks and other birds building their nests 
in the low-lying grass where soon the mower comes with his 
sharp scythe and the nests are utterly destroyed together 
with their young. How often men and women build the nest 
of their love in the dust of physical passion, where eventually 
it is crushed and broken and annihilated! Love must be built 
above passion. Unless the higher elements of faith and hope 
and spiritual love control, love cannot last! Like Alfred Noyes 
we must see something of the angel in each other: 


“But I never went to heaven, 
There was right good reason why, 
For they sent a shining angel to me there. 
An angel down in Devon, 
(Clad in muslin, by the bye) 
With the halo of the sunshine on her hair!” 


True manhood and true womanhood cannot develop in wed- 


lock so long as we make the marriage relation a mere excuse. 


for animal indulgence. It must be a means of high, spiritual 
advancement. Physical love is only the seed beneath the 
earth, earthy; its noblest possibilities are not realized until 
it lifts its branches high in response to heavenly sunshine 

from above. . 
One would have liked to have been in Cana at the wedding 
Jesus attended. He came with no prudish attitude which 
_ hindered wholesome fun. But there must have been something 
about his presence there that put all thinking on a high plane. 
Hearts must have been awakened to new visions of what true 
love can do in a life. The living Christ can still come to 
126 


THE NEW MARRIAGE [VI-5] 


our wedding ceremonies, adding to them the sanctity of a true 
sacrament. 

- Many, many couples might say with W. J. Dawson that 
Christ had purified and exalted their love-life: 


“One there was with face divine 

Who softly came when day was spent, 
And turned our water into wine, 

And made our life a sacrament.” 


Sixth Week, Fifth Day | 
And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; 


and he ledged there.—Matt. 21: 17. 


One might wonder why Jesus was so often in Bethany, 


that little village three miles southeast of Jerusalem. The 


explanation is, of course, that there Lazarus, Martha, and 
Mary lived. He counted them among his dearest friends; 
and we find him in today’s passage lodging there for a fare- 
well visit before the trying days of that last terrific week 
of his life. But one has the feeling that it was something 


‘more than mere friendship which drew the Master to the 


Bethany home when the shadow of death was already falling 
upon his life. That there was in his heart a deep love, and 
an affectionate love for Mary, which perhaps no one else 
shared, seems at least hinted in several gospel passages: she 
had the same name as his mother; if we may suppose that the 
woman, mentioned in Matthew 26: 6-13, Mark 14: 3-9, John 


11:2, and John 12:3, was Mary, she was one of his most 


loyal friends; she loved to sit at his feet and hear his voice 
(Luke 10: 38-42) ; and she was last at the cross and first to 
meet him in the garden (John 19: 25 and 20:16). We cannot, 
of course, be sure. But may it not have been (judging from 
the numerous visits to Bethany and the numerous examples of 
her discipleship) that Mary’s friendship was one of the chief 


treasures and inspirations of his life? 


Indeed, it may be said that no life attains to the heights of 
achievement and power and vision without this electric 
inspiration of love. In the humblest example of modern life 
one can see something of the glory that comes from this 

ey] 


- £ =a 


[VI-5] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE ye: 


power. Brann has put into words a familiar experience: 

“The young man goeth forth in the early evening and his 

patent leathers. His coat-tail pockets bulge with caramels 

and his one silk handkerchief, perfumed with attar of roses, 
reposeth with» studied negligence m his bosom... . He 
calleth upon the innocent damosel with soft eyes and lips 
like unto a cleft cherry when purple with its own sweetness, — 

and she singeth unto him with a voice that hath the low sweet ¢ 
melody of an zolian harp. ... When the gay young man ~ 
doth stagger down the doorsteps of her dear father’s domi- 

cile, he is drunken with the sweetness of it all and glad of 

it!” When this divine spirit of love rolls across the ocean — 
of life to break in splendor upon the heart’s shore, what 

tongue can utter, what words can express the strange and 
enchanting mystery of it? It is as if the gates of heaven had a 
been opened and the wonders of God had been revealed. The o 
whole universe takes on new colors, and life is a new thing. 
The deepest joys, the highest hopes, the richest powers spring 
out of this heavenly bond between man and woman. A =~ 
soul’s noblest living may date from the day. when in love | 
came that bright experience, whose empowering influence is 
so well expressed by Elizabeth Browning: “T felt so young, — 
$0 strong, so sure of God!” Joseph Camp has given us a 
poem which tells how much love means to life: me 





“The love of Man for Woman, 
The love of her for him, 

Has been the song of ages, 
Of heroes, kings and sages, 
Of poets, queens and pages 
From times remote and dim, 
The song divine and human! 


“The world has always striven— 

And it is striving still— 

The song of songs to render, 

The song of soul and splendor, 

The song of ‘hearts made tender 

By Love’s delicious thrill 

That turns the world to Heaven!” : 
128 ‘ 


THE NEW MARRI. 


Sixth Week, Sixth Diva 


Another said, I have married a wife, a 
not come.—Luke 14: 20. 


Love is certainly a wonderful experience—. 
soon dries up and withers, leaving only a broi 
was once a fragrant flower. Before marriagy 
young people have! How forgetful of self are the. 
seems too much to bring that girl of your heart. 
seems too sweet to tell that lad of your dreams. Wha. 
vows and murmured promises for the future before 
wedding, but “after the honeymoon” too frequently there .v- 
another story! 

“O! who but can recall the eve they met, 

To breathe in some green walk their first young vow? 
While summer flowers with moonlight dews were wet, 
And winds sighed soft around the mountain’s brow, 

. How all was rapture then... but now!” 

Love is like an oil lamp which soon will burn out unless 
replenished. We seem to think that these glorious ecstasies 
of perfect love are perpetual and that we need not take pre- 
cautions for their preservation. But the flame of love can be 
very transitory; nothing needs renourishing so much. The 
way to keep the love-light burning is to replenish the flame 
every day with the oil of patience and thoughtfulness and 
gentleness and praise. 

How many young men and women have gone bravely into 
the state of marriage only to discover one sad day that they 
are suddenly destitute of love and understanding, unable to 
realize the home they dreamed. The glad adventure of their 
visions has faded to a listless, boring nullity! They ex- 
perience that strange winter of discontent which comes to 
every married pair who awake to the fact that their partner 
is not a saint after all but a very human being: 


“You set your heart on Nancy, 
You won your fancy, lad. 
But love had never taught you 
What other names she had, 
Or what gay Naiad lent her grace, 
What shining Oread.... 
129 


















[ASTER’S MESSAGE 


on your pretty Nancy, 

_€ was all you had. 

starry woman vanished. 
snely lass and lad 

.utely upon each other gaze 
Nor know why they are sad... .” 

-ous aftermath of wedding days can only be 
.d overcome by adequate reserves of understanding 
aradeship. In the parable of the banquet, which is the - 
ag for our thought here, the Master tells of a man who 
vas kept from the Lord’s table of Life because he was mar- 
ried. Thus, for many, marriages are obstacles not privileges, 
weights not wings, scenes of conflict not doors to Eden. How 
sad is the fallen nest where highest hopes and interwoven 
memories lie all crushed and broken! 


Sixth Week, Seventh Day 


If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and 
mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, 
yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple—Luke 
14: 26. 


This is one of the most baffling lines from the lips of Jesus. 
It seems to cut straight across the most treasured bonds of 
human life, to sever such dear relationships as parental love, 
brotherly and sisterly love, wedded love, and regard for 
one’s own life. One notices, however, in thinking upon these 
strange words, that Jesus is not here rejecting or depreciating 
family life but actually exalting it, because he is stating the 
price of discipleship in terms of the most precious things on 
earth. To truly understand this piercing passage we must see 
it as one of those Oriental apothegms which shrines some 
hidden truth. In another connection Jesus spoke of saving 
life by losing it. Something of the same paradox is behind 
his saying here. It is when you turn from the love of your 
own self-centered life to my challenging cause, he is saying, 
that you are really having the highest regard for your own 
soul. It is when you turn from a too self-centered and self- 
satisfied family circle to me and my holy human service that 

130 


Laer ta av =~ e - —aieee 


THE NEW MARRIAGE [VI-m] 


you realize the highest possibilities of family life itself. You 
love your loved. ones best; he says, when you serve me most! 

It is not so hard to see why this should be true. The Gulf 
Stream which has felt the warmth of the tropical climate 
makes .cold shores bloom where it flows. So the life that 
has first given itself completely to the warm purity and sun- 
shine of Christ comes to mortal loved ones bearing a love 
more fruitful than ever would be possible otherwise. That 
wife or husband, brother or sister, father or mother, whose 
life has been sun-brightened by the Christward, Godward, 
heavenward look blesses loved ones nearby with far more 
power than the one who has a direct but unspiritualized love. 
A remarkable example of this fact is furnished by the lives 
of Dr. and Mrs. Francis Clark of Christian Endeavor, who 
- announced upon the occasion of their fiftieth wedding anni- 
versary that they were “fifty times happier than the day they 
were married.” Was not the explanation of so beautiful a 
married life the significant fact that through all those years 
they had been forgetting themselves so much in the service 
of their Master that at last they found themselves with a love 
more devoted and more rich than ever they could have found 
apart from discipleship to Christ? That ship of married life 
sails safe when steered by the star of God’s will and not 
by the uncertain shore lights of earthly purposes. Because 
Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s love grew up out of the 
deepest devotion to her Lord, it could bloom in most fruitful 
ways for her husband: 


“God’s will devotes 
Thine to such ends, and mine to wait on thine! 
How, Dearest, wilt thou have me for most use? 


_ 


A hope, to sing by gladly . . . or a fine, sad memory, 
With thy songs to interfuse? . . . a shade in which to sing 
Of palm or pine? .. . a grave on which to rest from singing? 


. . « Choose!” 


MEDITATION ON THE MASTER’S THOUGHT 


Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou 
shalt not commit adultery: but I say unto you, That whoso- 
ever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed 
adultery with her already in his heart. And if thy right eye 
offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is 
13I 


[VI-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE ‘ 


profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, 
and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And 
if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from 
thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members 
should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast 
into hell. 

It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, 
let him give her a writing of divorcement: but I say unto 
you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for 
the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: 
and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth 
adultery.—Matt. 5: 27-32. 


I 


A newspaper article, which reported the rather interesting 
fact that archeologists had discovered a love letter among 
the ruins of Babylon, inspired Don Marquis to write a notable 
poem called “News from Babylon’: . 


“The world hath just one tale to tell, and it is very old, 
A little tale—a simple tale—a tale that’s easy told: . 
‘There was a youth in Babylon who greatly loved a maid!’ 


“The dust of forty centuries has buried Babylon, 
And out of all her lovers dead rises only one; 
Rises with a song to sing and laughter in his eyes, 
The old song—the only song—for all the rest are lies! 
For, oh! the world has just one dream, and it is very old— 
‘Tis youth’s dream—a silly dream—but it is flushed with 
gold!” 


Of course, what Marquis is saying is perfectly true: love is 
the most intense, the most creative, and the most universal 
emotion of the human heart. From it comes all the finest 
in poetry, in music, in literature, and in art. But as love is 
the source of most of human happiness so it is the reason 
for most of human tragedy. Blessings perverted become the 
worst curses; and love is no exception to that rule! 

In our day, too, the noble impulse of love has been reduced 
to lust. We debase the heavenly gift of love when we make 
it the means of self-gratification. This wrong-heartedness is 


what Jesus rebukes in his Sermon on the Mount. Today his © 


holy indignation ought still to pierce to the black depths of 
132 


eee ee 


- THE’ NEW MARRIAGE [VI-m] 


our low, current standards, revealing to us the need and the 
way to the recovery of one of God’s choicest blessings. 

Man will be delivered from the evil train that follows in the 
wake of misused love when he achieves three steps forward 
and upward: Firstly, Just must be replaced by a noble love 
wherein man and woman are considered equals. 

Woman, for ages, has had nothing but the status of a 
chattel, and the home was nothing but a place where a man 
kept his sex property under lock and key. Beginning with 
the Decalogue, where a man’s wife is put in the same category 
with his ox and his ass, the belongings which a neighbor 
must not covet, down to modern times when in the marriage 
ceremony the father of the bride still answers the ancient 
question: “Who giveth this woman away?” with the “I do!” 
of the owner of property, the deplorable inequality of woman 
has existed. In India she was burnt on the funeral pyre; 
under the crescent of Mohammed her life was one of com- 
plete servitude; the ancient Greeks spoke of ruling their 
slaves as a despot, their children as a king, and their wives 
as a magistrate! Early Christian anchorites fled from woman 
as from life’s greatest temptation, and she, by many abnormal 
monks, was spoken of with unpleasant epithets. Emancipation 
of woman has steadily progressea until today she has practi- 
cally reached an equality with man, although still in some 
countries she bears the brunt of the heavy labor, owns no 
property, and receives careless consideration. When man 
makes woman his honored and equal mate then love begins to 
have its high and rightful estate. ; 


“As a woman ranks in the esteem of man, 

So in his heart is love unclean or pure; 

So much, too, he esteemeth honor, or 

So little, and so himself is honored. 

Who not esteems himself, ne’er honors woman, 
Who honors woman not—doth he know love? 
Who knows not love, is honor known to him? 
Who knoweth honor not, what hath he left? 


Again, lust must be replaced by a noble love wherein 
the partners respect each other as spiritual personalities. The 
love of Jesus was always a love for the person which grew 


133 


[VI-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE , 


out of a longing to be of service, and a complete control of 
selfish desires. The secret of a right and happy love-life is 
found by reproducing in our own lives that spirit of Jesus, 


which seeking nothing for itself, desires but to honor and — 


please and bless the partner-personality. But how truly does 
a French poet, Paul Geraldy, describe the attitude of many, 
many people in their love-life: 


“You said, ‘All day I think of you!’ 
*Twas not true. 
’Tis love you think of endlessly, 
*Tis not me. 


“‘Nightly as I lie in bed, 
All my thoughts are yours,’ you said, 
‘Never o’er my weeping eyes 
Slumber slips.’ 
But love to you is not a flame, 
*Tis a game, 
And it is the kiss you prize, 
Not the lips. 


“Any hint of pain you smother. 
*Tis a truth you’ve always known 
That our joys are all our own... 
But love is a necessity. 

Would you care much less for me 

If I were another?” 


Self-controlled love is the secret of real happiness. Through — 
mastery the joys of love are enhanced. No wickedness de- — 
stroys the beauty and the wonder of love more quickly than — 
the selfishness which prizes only the love and not the loved © 


one. No man really begins to love highly and nobly until he 
has thoroughly hated the lust which would make a mockery 


of his loving. Browning, in a rare line in “One Word More,” 
pays a worthy tribute to Dante because he was a true lover: — 


“Dante, who loved well because he hated, 
Hated wickedness that hinders loving!” 


4 


Tie ea 


And with what attractive humility and self-evident grace 


does Robert Louis Stevenson enter the sacred portals of 
134 


er ae eer 


THE NEW MARRIAGE [ VI-m] 


married life: “I ...who have hitherto made so poor a 
business of my own life, am now about to embrace the re- 
sponsibility of another’s. Henceforth there shall be two to 
suffer for my faults. ... Marriage is the last act of com- 
mittal. After that there is no way left, not even suicide, but 
to be a good man!” 

Once more, lust must be replaced by a noble love 
wherein all sex thinking is purified and refined! He who 
entertains unholy, unworthy, impure thoughts is sowing the 
seeds of future ruin. He who goes in thought where he 
knows he dare not go in body is contaminating the soul. 
That man grows just as foul and evil as the obscene pictures 
which he hangs upon the walls of his imagination. It is a 
literal law of the spiritual life that a man becomes what he 
is in his thoughts (Prov. 23:7). The tragedy of the evil 
thought is pictured perfectly for us in the life of David, 
where one evil thought made a man a traitor, an adulterer, 
and a murderer. It is unfolded in the downfall of a Samson 
who with a mighty body, nevertheless, had a weak head. 
History has no more certainly provable lesson than this: clean 
thinking makes for clean living. 


“Think and be careful what thou art within; 
For there is sin in the desire of sin. 
Think, and be thankful, in a different case; 
For there is grace in the desire of grace!” 


The disease of the great social evil will be cured only when 
men’s hearts are made holy within. This does not mean 
suppression of sex, but suppression of lust in every form. In 
our current, passage Jesus commands everyone not to lust, 
and this applies as much to the married as to the unmarried. 
The solution of the sex problem is not celibacy but affection; 
not unnatural repression but holy love inspired by thinking | 
as clean as the thinking of Jesus. The achievement of this 
type of noble love is one of the best buttresses of all character, 
Carlyle has well expressed it: ‘Chastity, in the true form of 
it, is probably the most beautiful of virtues—essential to all 
noble creatures. A lewd being has fatally lost the aroma of 
existence, and become caput mortuum in regard to the higher 
functions of intelligence and morality.” Upon that day when 


135 


[VI-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 3 ‘ 


a man drives from the cellar of his soul all mental vermin 
does he become spiritually whole. How healthy, how 
fearless, how noble is he who knows his mind is clean! How 
our prayer ought to be every morning of our days that great 
prayer of the Psalmist: “Create in me a clean heart, O 
God. ... All that is within me, bless his holy name!” 
(Psalms 51:10; 103: 1.) 

The man who looks lustfully on any woman, says Jesus, 
has already committed gross sin. The agency of that lust, 
whether eye or hand, must be rooted out of life lest it ruin 
all. We have seen that the agencies that contribute to the 
lustful spirit in man are the inequality which makes of woman 
a piece of physical merchandise, the disrespect that fails to 
see the soul of woman as a holy temple of Godlike personality, 
and the evil imagination which creates from the holy relation 
of love a mental orgy of lewdness. The toleration of these 
obvious evils either personally or socially means death to the 
nobler joys in individual lives and a certain hell in human 
society. Unbridled passion which is lust makes hell; dis- 
ciplined, spiritualized love makes heaven. Thomas Gray has 
a wise word of direction for that .home-or that social group 
which longs for the kingdom of heaven: 


“Heaven lifts its everlasting portals high, 
And bids the pure in heart behold their God!’ 


II 


Social and natural law have combined to create what we 
know- as the institution of marriage. Around this institution 
twine the happiest and noblest experiences of the human soul. 
But all too frequently domestic joy is not achieved and the 
home becomes not the center of spiritual uplift and power 
but the source of some of the most complex agonies and the 
most bitter sorrows which the: world can give. Many a girl 
has gone out from her father’s house, borne on the seraphic 
experience of love, her feet scarcely touching the ground, 
only to find that the flowers of today turn to the thorns of 
tomorrow. Many a boy has gone gladly into the marriage 
relation with happy hopes, to discover that the angel-face he 
loved has turned to a devil-face, that the bubbling stream of 

136 


THE NEW MARRIAGE [VI-m] 


flowing love into which he once looked has dried up leaving 
but a bed of gravel*and sand. Thousands there are who 
entered life with the choicest aspirations, hungering and 
_thirsting for a real home. In the morning of wedlock every 
pane of glass had its candle, every meal was a feast, and every 
day a honeymoon holiday. But times of selfishness and 
jealousy and suspicion and disappointment and _afflictive 
sorrow have blighted affection until the glowing candles have 
burned to their sockets, and married life has become a yoke 
and a burden, and husband and wife cry day and night: 
“Who will deliver us from the body of this death?” 


“Oh! but Fate plays us many a sorry jest! 
Dry dust and ashes crown our fondest quest!” 

Now it is easy for society to point at such an unhappy 
situation with the finger of scorn and shame, thus adding to 
the bitter misery of the hapless couple. More helpful would 
it be to consider the causes and the remedies for our domestic 
tragedies. There are just three types of marriages: first, the 
perfect union of ideal soul mates, second, the average up-and- 
down match which gets by fairly well because culture, 
’ education, convention, and religious beliefs buttress it, and 
third, the unfit union of utter incompatibles who never could 
make a go of married life though they should live until dooms- 
day. Any sane person, unprejudiced and well-balanced, would 
say that, in the third case, the right thing for the couple to do 
would be to separate quietly and go their way to some happier 
and more congenial union. But unfortunate customs intervene. 
When the church could help most by wise sympathy, the in- 
- stitution representing Jesus has only added to the miseries of 
the unhappy pair by the decree that divorce is utterly unap- 
proved and even sinful. No matter if they have found it 
impossible to realize a loving comradeship, no matter if their 
marital unhappiness has made of one an incorrigible shrew ~° 
and the other an inveterate drunkard, society ordains that 
_ they must perpetuate the impossible arrangement or be branded 
with the iron of public disgrace. Like Socrates and Xantippe 
or Rip Van Winkle and his ruthless spouse, many couples still 
live together with constant quarrelling, because of their own 
unfortunate mistake and their dread of what church and 

137 


a Sp es en PER A re eae 
ee . a. 


+. 


[VI-m] THE MASTER'S MESSAGE 


society would say if they separated. Under such conditions, 
is not marriage a black nightmare? Is it not the cruel keeping 
up of an unfair contract under compulsion of the police? 





A rigid divorce law has several unfortunate results. Here 


we shall note but three. First of all, a rigid divorce law may 
result in the forcing of two people to live together when they 
do not really love each other at all. God only sanctions the 
holy rite of wedlock where true love exists. Secondly, a rigid 
divorce law may result in court trials that provide oppor- 
tunity for the airing of events which would be better kept 
quiet. In many states divorce will not be granted until certain 


first-hand evidence is produced. Detectives are therefore hired 


and when they come to court with their stories, a mass of sala- 
cious tid-bits are offered for a gaping audience and the pages 


of yellow journals. Thirdly, a rigid divorce law may result 


in nervous breakdowns by the thousands. A reputable physi- 
cian, who makes his specialty the mental and nervous dis- 
orders of men and women, once told me that nine out of ten of 
his patients are nervous wrecks because of an incompatible 
sex life. 

Of course no one will defend the frivolous, unserious per- 
sons who fly easily into marriage and out of it impelled by 
only one consideration and that a mighty low one. But the 


majority of unfortunate marriages, these unholy misalliances: 


which cause so much hardship and unhappiness in our world, 
are not due to the weakness of the characters of the prin- 
cipals involved. They are the result of an inevitable unfitted- 
ness of certain personalities for each other, and when divorce 
as sought under these conditions, it is not a sinful but 
a Christian procedure. Many a luckless pair, honestly and 
courageously facing the fact of their unsuitableness for each 
other, have suffered the grossest indignities and vilest op- 
probrium in their efforts to secure a separation which would 
pass muster before church and state. The guilty ones, in 
such a case, are not the unfortunate people whose home has 
gone on the rocks. They are in a predicament which deserves 
only our deepest sympathy. The real guilt rests with the 
relatives who should have prevented the marriage in the first 


place, or minded their own business after the wedding; with” 


the state which has held a club of compulsion over the heads 
of the pair; and with those, who either by gossip or false 
138 


a 


r 
te 


‘ 


it 


i 
é 





4 


THE NEW MARRIAGE [VI-m] 


advice, have made matters even more complex for the unhappy 
persons involved. Truly it is a social law: Woe to them who 
have blundered into an ill-mated, unfortunate marriage! For 
them it were better by far that they were divorced and re- 
married ! 

“But,” ask some, “is it not the law of Christ that divorce 
is a sin? Has not Holy* Writ clearly stated to us that the 
man who puts away his wife and marries another commits 
adultery? Has not Holy Church pronounced in tones of un- 
answerable authority the strict duty of those who enter the 
bonds of holy wedlock?” And one, of course, will answer 
readily, Yes! what Jesus has stated, what Holy Scripture says, 
and what the Church through the ages has held dear, these 
demand the respect and consideration of every fair man. But 
God has also given us a conscience, a heart, and a mind. May 
it not be that these will help too in the solving of this complex 
problem? 

As a matter of fact, what Jesus says about this problem of 
‘divorce, is, as we might expect, on the side of sound sense, 
broad-minded human sympathy, and the highest purity. If 
we turn to the passages where Jesus discusses the question 
(Matt. 5: 27-32—19: 3-12; Luke 16:18; and Mark 10: 2-12), 
we shall find that he is not laying down a rigid law, but ex- 
pressing a general spirit. We shall understand him best if 
we remember that his words in these passages are his reaction 
to two situations in his own day: the bill of divorcement 
custom by which any man at any time could simply give his 
wife a scrap of paper and get rid of her, and the lustful 
hypocrisy of the Pharisees and scribes. Rather than be classed 
with the low people who use the device of the unfair bill of 
divorcement, he meant, make the best of your married life. 
Rather than live in a painted hell like the Pharisees, posing 
outwardly as pious perfectionists, yet inwardly impure and 
vicious of heart, make yourselves celibate for the sake of the 
kingdom of God. Jesus, therefore, is not here giving us a 
static social standard which through all history must remain 
the same; but he is giving a rebuke to the hypocrites and a 
challenge to the disciples; he is putting the entire sex relation 
upon the highest possible plane! 

Were Jesus here today he would not be speaking of “an 
inexorable law” which at all costs must keep married couples 


139 


Sa ly orn Me 


[VI-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


together when they are unfitted for one another. Nor would 
he be a partner in any “back to nature’ movement. His 
weight would be thrown on the side of good judgment and 
self-control both before and after the wedding day. -He 
would not insist on holiness through celibacy, but happier 
sex adjustment under the spell of moral idealism. Our day 
is longing for the new marriage. Wnder the régime of the old 
marriage illicit love relations, waste of good fathering and 
mothering material, the exaltation of hypocritical celibacy, 
the breaking of hearts, the reveling in slander, and ecclesi- 
astical bigotry thrived. With the sharp plows of the newer 
and more honest thinking we must plow up these old fields 


of ill-smelling weeds, and sow the good seed of a happier 


and more rational love-life. The economic independence and 
equality of women, the light of the new psychology, the new 
freedom in divorce are battering rams before which the old 
feudal stronghold of an inhuman marriage system is crum- 
bling. It ought to crumble! In the new day when men and 
women have a nobler and finer and more spiritual view of 
love, they will not need the compulsion of church or state 
to keep them together. They will make their happy home on 
earth, not because they are forced to, but because they want 
to. That, after all, is the only way a happy home can come. 


III 


When one considers the precarious foundations upon which 
many homes are reared, one wonders why there are not more 
divorces, separations, and disagreements than there are. In 
how many homes are children reared in the cold, stultifying 
atmosphere of unhappy criticism and conflict. From how 
many family circles are children going out to the serious busi- 
ness of matrimony with no knowledge of their sex nature, 
and no preparedness for the towering problems which will 


meet them at every turn. With no counsel from mother and 


father they mistake the tiniest spark of physical attraction 

for the genuine flame of love; they plunge into misalliances 

when only a word of guidance would show them the folly 

of it. Often their wedding, which might be made into a 

beautiful and impressive and sacred ceremony, with elements 

powerful enough spiritually to give them a good start toward 
140 


~ 





~ 


THE NEW MARRIAGE [VI-m] 


a wedlock “till death do us part,” is a shallow, meaningless 
affair, drooled by some unsympathetic clergyman, and fol- 
lowed by a hilarious party. The wedding day ought to be 
made one of the most sacred days in all life's history. 
From it a benediction should fall upon every day to the end 
of life. In the calendar of memory it should stand out like 
a star with the brightness of honored vows, plighted troth, 
radiant love. 

The bridal gate, however, does not essentially open into the 
finished garden of Eden. On no undeserved silver platter is 
the perfect bliss of married life presented! Noble and happy 
married life is a thing to be achteved. The steps to that 
glorious and delicate peak of ideal wedlock lead up through 
the years and the stepping stones are purity and patience, 
nobility and sympathy, truth and wisdom, gentleness and 
forgiveness, unselfishness and glad self-sacrifice! How beau- 
tifully Emily Dickinson phrases for us the spirit of noble 
renunciation which lies behind all happy homes: 


“Fach bound the other’s crucifix, 
We gave no other bond. 

Sufficient troth that we shall rise— 
Deposed, at length, the grave— 

To that new marriage, justified 
Through Calvaries of Love!” 


The new marriage, rising through Calvaries of Love, makes 
earth’s most beautiful spot, the true home. Years ago in the 
old Castle Garden twenty thousand people gathered to hear 
Jennie Lind sing.. After singing a few classical numbers she 
began “Home, Sweet Home.” The audience could not stand 
it. An uproar of applause stopped the music. Tears gushed 
from thousands like rain. That word “home” had touched 
the springs of every heart. A Japanese boy, coming to Amer- 
ica for the first time, was eager to see the sacred mountain 
which held the place in the hearts of Americans which 
Fujiyama holds in Japanese hearts. Disappointed, he said at 
last: “I think I have found your Fujiyama. It is your 
American home. Around that all your holiest ideals, all your 
best hopes and purposes gather!” 

What are the elements out of which the glorious place 

I4I 


, : 2 = a os i ~“ ye 


= 


~~ ” 


[VIl-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE _ 


called home is made? What is the framework upon which 
the vine of happiness is twined? Jt is the house itself, in the 
first place. Though it be but a tiny cottage you can see 
character in a home, from the pansies and lilies and graceful 
shrubs in the front yard to the neat, well-kept attic. In a 
real home you feel cozy the minute you enter the door. The 
walls and the interior finish are friendly. The hearth has a 
look of welcome, there are pictures that inspire, the furni- 
ture may not be up-to-date but it is comfortable and homey. 
Days of gracious living have woven golden threads at every 
turn, and the fabric that has come from the weaving is full 
of beauty. It is the children, in the second place. Not until 
walls have heard the shouts of merry laughter, not until the 
stairs have felt the patter of little feet rioting through the 
house in happy play, not until the chastening sight of the 
cradle has bestowed its providential mysteries upon mother 
and father, does the house become a home, the household a 
heaven. The golden eagle, spreading its wings over its little 
ones in the storm, tenderly feeding the little birds and de- 
fending them from many dangers, is the symbol of that paren- 
tal love which is in every heart. When children come to any 
home, mother and father are brought closer than ever, their 
best and noblest qualities are elicited. 


In the third place, the home is made out of that mutual’ 
growth into noble companionship and creative love between — 


husband and wife. There is nothing sadder than a lonely 
woman pining her life away in some tenement room when 
with the right man she might have found her place as an 
ideal wife. There is nothing more pitiful than a homeless 
man, eking out the selfish existence of bachelordom when 
he might have made with the right woman an ideal husband. 
There is an incompleteness in the unmarried state. Man is 
woman’s supplement; woman is man’s complement. The 


gentle, kind, generous, large-hearted, affectionate, virtuous ~ 


man is a castle of refuge and hope to tender woman. She 
looks up into his face with confiding heart, knowing that he 
will keep safe all the sacred interests of her soul and life. 
He is her knight to whom she has entrusted her all. He is 
her hero going out to the world in courageous. achievement 
both for her sake and her children’s sake, and if he is a good 


man, her life twines about his stronger life as the ivy clings 


142 





eee 


THE NEW MARRIAGE [VI-m] 


to the sunlit wall. He is her stay and staff in life, and all 
the nobler wifely qualities rise in her in response to his no- 
bility. The husband and father plays a vital role in the 
circle of the home, but in many ways it is the wife and 
mother who holds the key to the home’s highest happiness. 
A man is like a watch; he is helpless, useless, if you take 
the spring out; and the spring in every man’s heart is his 
home. A man is like a tree; there never was a man yet 
who grew great in character and ability who did not have the 
roots of his spirit deep in the fruitful soil of some good 
home. A man is like potter’s clay; he is very easily molded 
by his environment; and a good wife is like a guardian angel 
who transforms the brute in him into the divine. What Otway 
says, many an honest man-would echo: 


“OQ woman, lovely woman, nature made thee 
To temper man: we had been brutes without you, 
Angels are painted fair to look like you!” 


So the true wife makes a man’s life nobler, stronger, 
grander by the omnipotence of her spiritual love, turning all 
’ the energies of his life into heavenward channels. What 
diamonds of literature and experience fill the fields of man’s 
memory when one thinks of that precious boon, the loving 
woman of the home. We hear Mazzini saying: “Woman 
is the angel of the family! ‘Mother, wife, or sister—woman 
is the caress of life, the sdothing sweetness of affection shed 
over its toils; a reflection for the individual of the loving 
providence which watches over humanity. In her there is 
treasure enough of consoling tenderness to allay every pain. 

, . The mother’s first kiss teaches the child love; the first 
holy kiss of the woman he loves teaches man faith and hope 
in life, creates in him a desire for perfection and gives the 
power of reaching toward it step by step. . . . Through her 
the Family, with its divine mystery of reproduction, points 
to Eternity!” We see the courageous Danton going to the 
guillotine, yet at the foot of the scaffold, remembering the 
noblest blessing of his life, lifting his drooping head to cry — 
out: “O my Wife, my well-beloved, I shall never see thee 
more!” We sense that glowing heart of gratitude for wifely 

143 


[VI-m] THE MASTER'S MESSAGE — 

; nih 
love in Robert Louis Stevenson when we listen to one of the 
sweetest of all his poems: 


“Trusty, dusky, vivid, true, 

With eyes of gold and bramble-dew, 
Steel true and blade straight * 
The great Artificer made my mate. 


“Honor, anger, valor, fire, 

A love that life could never tire, 
Death quench, or evil stir, 

The mighty Master gave to her, 


“Teacher, tender comrade, wife, 
A fellow-farer true through life, 
Heart-whole and soul-free, 

The August Father gave to me.” 


What a pity that so many men should fail to see in their 
loving wives such treasures as these men saw! How much 
is lost by nagging impatience, by selfish unsympathy, by hot- 
tempered blindness, by sour and glum dispositions, by neg- 
lectful carelessness. Our wives are round about us like angels 
of mercy and ministry and magnanimity, only like Jacob, we 
do not see them ascending and descending except in a dream. 
Many a man if his spiritual eyes were only opened would 
see that his tender wife was to him the very messenger of 
God and his home the very gate of heaven. But too many 
husbands are like old William Pynchon, founder of Spring- 


field, who proved to his own satisfaction that Adam and Eve 


were created in the morning of the sixth day, that in the 
early afternoon of the same day they sinned, were sentenced, 
and banished, that, on the following day, they instituted the 
Church. “And if you ask,” he said, “who was the congrega- 
tion and who the preacher, I answer, Adam was the preacher, 
and discoursed to Eve upon the wretched state into which 
she had brought them and their posterity!” So, according 
to Pynchon, the Bible instituted the ancient and time-honored 
custom that husbands shall preach and wives listen. But the 
home where husband (or wife) assumes dictatorship is a 
“house divided against itself.” Mutuality, equality, harmony, 
144 





THE NEW MURRIAGE [VI-m] 


—these are the great stones in the foundations of the home. 
The achievement of a divine unity—that is the great goal of 
married life! 


“Yes! we go gently down the hill of life, 
And thank our God at every step we go, 
The husband-lover and the sweetheart-wife. 
Of creeping age what do we care or know? 
Each says to each, ‘Our fourscore years, thrice told, 
Would leave us young—the soul is never old!’ 


“What is the grave to us? Can it divide 
The destiny of two by God made one? 
We step across and reach the other side, 
To know our blessed life is but begun. 

These fading faculties are sent to say 
Heaven is more near today than yesterday!” 

There are homes into which you go where one almost 
feels the disharmony, the conflict, the suspicions, the hates 
and the quarrels. Then there are other homes where one 
feels the higher influences of life everywhere present. It is 
a divine atmosphere and one can sense it. You pass by a gar- 
den wall and the sweet odor of the honeysuckle fills your 
nostrils. You cannot see it, but you know it is near. So in 
some houses there is an inescapable fragrance which says: 
“There is honeysuckle here!” And perhaps if you should 
search for the source of that divine aroma of love, which 
blesses all within that house, and goes out through the com- 
munity in healing and health and happiness, you would find 
a family altar, where, as in Burns’ “Cotter’s Saturday’ Night,” 
the home congregation joins in kneeling humility before the 
heavenly throne. There, in tender, beseeching prayer, in 
happy hymns, in the reading of the sacred page the holy influ- 
ences of God’s spirit are invited and generated. Thus the 


- incense of God’s love penetrates and blesses every hope and 


heart of that fortunate home. “If I stay another day in 
your home,” said Lord Peterborough to Fénelon, “I shall 
become a Christian despite myself!” Is our home life filled 
with Christian influence? 

The light that shines from that noble home in Nazareth 


145 


(a= a a ge ee al oe 
™ ES IS oy oes ee ee ee 
. : Seguin 2-H > a 





[VI-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


is the secret of the solution of all our problems connected — 
with family life. A more liberal divorce law, a finer appre- 

ciation of the sanctity and beauty and nobility of the human — 
body and its normal functions, the transformation of the — 
home from an autocracy into a democracy, the more honest 

and frank facing of the whole sex question—these are dis- 
tinct blessings in the program for the new day. But they are 7 
also dangers. And lest they be carried to extravagant ex- : 
tremes we need now as never before the holy chastening — 
which comes from a consideration of that home where Jesus ‘ 
lived. The sweet purity of that noble mother, Mary, the — 
sturdy, manly, fatherly qualities of Joseph, the obedience and 
freedom of the children, and the gentle, reverential atmos- 
“phere of that humble house of the carpenter teach us the — 
way humanity’s highest life comes. A place which could — 
produce a Jesus is a place the world needs. An institution — 
which could form the majesty of a life like Christ’s is an — 
institution indispensable for our day. Jesus Christ could not a 
have become Jesus Christ without the wonderful influence — 
breathed into his life from the bosom of that lowly Nazarene — 
family. Here then is life’s crown and glory, that palace of 
peace, that haven of hope, that sanctuary of love, that little 
bit of heaven on earth, called “home.” ie 


* 

















“The robin is the one, 

That speechless from her nest, 
Submits that home and certainty 
And sanctity are best!” 


O, our Father in heaven, we thank Thee for the precious gift 
of manhood and womanhood. We thank Thee that it is Thy — 
holy will that we should come together in love to make a 
home, where little children, Thy little messengers of peace, 
should come and grow and brighten our days. Lead us once — 
again beside that holy manger in Bethlehem, to that heavenly 
home in Nazareth where we may catch the gleam of the 
higher hopes and nobler purposes of life. In all our living 
may we be inspired by him whose love is named as a sacred 
bond among the whole family of humanity in heaven and 
earth, Amen. 

146 


THE NEW MARRIAGE [VI-q] 


LIFE QUESTIONS 


1. Why is the lustful look as bad as the deed? 

2. Is the modern, frank attitude toward sex a good or a 
bad sign? Why is marriage such a vital problem? 

3. “Petting is all right, provided it is carried on between 
two people of equal age, who have sense enough not to carry 
it too far. It acts as nature’s safety valve.’ (A _ noted 
physician. ) 

Analyze this statement from your own viewpoint. Is the 
widespread habit of petting an indication of some natural law 
which operates to develop the sex nature? What does Na- 
ture have to say in a guiding way as to the sex problem? 

4. Name the most indispensable elements in a happy mar- 
riage. Name the noblest and most effective force which 
will keep a man clean and straight and pure. 

5. “The heart needs not for its heaven much space, nor 
‘many stars therein, if only the star of love has arisen.” 
(Richter. ) 

How vital a part does love play in creative achievement? 
What would you say was the most empowering inspiration 
of your life? 

6. “Chastity is a preparation for love; and if you forbid 
love, whether by law, or by social convention, or by economic 
strangling, you at once make chastity a Utopian dream.” 
(Upton Sinclair.) 

Does suppression get us anywhere in anything? Is chas- 
tity the result of suppression of sex or intelligent, natural 
growth into maturity? 

7. “In not a few cases the real reason for the divorce is 
a desire to marry someone else.” (Bishop William T. 
Manning. ) 

Admitting the truth of this statement, analyze it by 
answering these questions: 

Is this desire always prompted by evil intentions? 

May it not be that the second marriage is more holy in 
God’s sight than the first? 

What right has the church or the state to prevent the honest © 
choice of two people who have decided they are for each 
other? 

147 


[VI-q] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 
f 


8. What contributes most to making home a happy place? 

What causes trouble most often in the home? 

Name some practical obstacles which prevent young people 
from realizing the home of their dreams? 

9. If the home should be eliminated as a social institution 
what blessings would humanity miss? 

10. Can religion help to stabilize home life? 

Can the Christian idea of God as a holy, loving Father offer 
any contribution to the government of the home? 

Would the unhappy home be saved if the members of the 
family lived in the unselfish spirit of Christ? i 


148 





CHAPTER VII 


The New Honesty 


DAILY READINGS 


One finds today among many a profound and passionate 
seeking for reality. Not only our youth but many mature 
men and women are sorely disillusioned. They have found 
the conventional honesty and pious morality .of society and 
the church absolutely unchristian. Not only do they discover 
that current ideas of right and wrong, popular standards of 
truth and falsehood are far away from those of Jesus, but 
_ they see, too, that few know what Jesus’ real ideals are. For 
many years there has been a vagueness about the church’s 

-teaching which has clouded the issues. Sometimes the church 
has called the biggest villains honest and has put the stigma 
of its condemnation upon those who were really close to 
Christ. When men have truly been taught the lofty mes- 
sage of the Master they have laughed at his ideals as too 
impractical to be taken literally. So, caught in a deceptive 
scheme of things in a world which frankly follows false 
values and adopts lower standards than Jesus, Christians 
have resigned themselves to a position obviously hypocritical: 
professing one thing and living another. 

With pitiless candor Emily Dickinson reveals her own re- 
action to society’s state when she sings of the only occasion 
when she can be sure of sincerity: 


“T like a look of agony 
Because I know it’s true, 
Men do not sham convulsion 
Nor simulate a throe.” 

149 


be hee ee ae ee eee tr ee ee _.. = “ ay 
> <> » ce So i A NR Aes ore ne a = 
cs a eat tate ee =. Sey fa 
5 ec She Ss f 


[VII-r] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE ee ise 


And the writer of “Painted Windows” picks Bishop Gore as 
the spiritual leader of England, not because of outstanding 
scholarship or ability, but because of the “grave sincerity 
of his soul.” . 

Let us try to discover in our daily readings the Jesus 
standard of honesty. In this chapter let us examine certain 
aspects of contemporary civilization to see how sham honesties 
and subtle hypocrisies are robbing us of the life that is open 
and honest and truly sincere. 


Seventh Week, First Day 


Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of 
Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the tra- 
dition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when — 
they eat bread. But he answered and said unto them, Why 
do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your 
tradition? For God commanded, saying, Honour thy 
father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, 
let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to 
his father or mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou might- 
est be profited by me; and honour not his father or his 
mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the command- — 
ment of God of none effect by your tradition. 3 

Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, — 
This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and 
honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from 
me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines — 
the commandments of men.— Matt. 15: 1-9. a 

There is a tradition among us called “going to church.” 
It is a Sunday habit. We put on religion like our Sunday 
clothes. That is the day to think of God and of Jesus. That 
is the day for the Bible. So we tune psalms and sing songs and 
look especially pious. So we go through the motions of the false | 
religion which is little more than an ancient custom. On 

Monday we-are back to normal. So the encrusted traditions — 
of men cover over the powers of God. So men praise him 
with their lips, but their hearts are cold and unmoved. So 
religion becomes a thin veneer of pretty words and polite 
conventions. Jt is a black fraud—underneath there 1s no 
concern or willingness whatsoever for the real ends and 
cause of Christ! ‘ 

150 


Pee eT eT ee ee ee ae a eee ee ge: 





















THE NEW HONESTY [VII-2] 


Is it then strange that many of us have had experiences 
with these lip-Christians like that of H. G. Wells: “I never 
yet met a man who talked proudly of his honor who did not 
end by cheating me’? Is it then so strange that our whole 
Christian society should have a kind of sham courtesy or 
customary etiquette with rigid rules that are followed by 
the “best people’ who, underneath in their hearts, have little 
honest grace or love or courtoisie de ceur? 

As the scribes and Pharisees temporized with the law of 
God, twisting and turning it to fit the easy-going standards 
of contemporary morality, we, in our day, are content to 
take the mighty truths Jesus died for and to make them of 
none effect, toning them down to suit a materialistic civiliza- 
tion. So we draw nigh to him with our mouths and honor 
him with our lips but our hearts are far from him. Our 
lip-worship is vain until we really try to take his teaching 
and make it regnant in our hearts and central in our lives! 

Our complacent neglect continues to crucify him, as Wat- 
tles says: 


“T bide my time, I keep my peace, I bind, I loose, I winnow, 
I bear no wounds as witnesses in hands and feet and side; 
I wear instead upon my brow the thorns of your compla- 

cence, 
And through earth’s generations my heart is crucified. 


“If you were brave, if you were kind, if you had faith sufficient, | 

If you believed the things you say, and died to make them 
true, 

I should not need to come again, returning and returning 

Through all the lonely centuries and Golgothas for you.” 


Seventh Week, Second Day 


Then the Pharisees took counsel how they might entangle 
him in his talk. 

And they sent out unto him their disciples with the 
Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and 
teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for 
any man: for thou regardest not the person of men. Tell 
us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give 
tribute unto Cesar, or not? 

. I5I 


[VII-2] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why 
‘tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Shew me the tribute money. 

And they brought unto him a penny. And he saith unto 
them, Whose.is this image and superscription? They say 
unto him, Czsar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render there- 
fore unto Czsar the things which are Cesar’s; and unto God 
the things that are God’s. 

When they heard these words, they marvelled and left 
him, and went their way.—Matt. 22: 16-22. 


Disloyal church folk, however, are not the only ones who 
crucify Jesus afresh. The worldly wise men, the Herodians 
of the day, are always seeking how they might entangle his 
‘teaching and bring it to naught. Shamed by the challenging 
‘morality of Jesus, they seek to prove him false! The pas- 
sage selected is a cogent example of much modern mockery 
of Jesus. 

The inquisitors have come with a tricky question to trap 
him into a seditious utterance. “Is it lawful to give tribute 
to Cesar?” was a query filled with impertinent irony and 
sarcasm. He asked for a denarius, and when they brought 


it, he asked: ‘Whose is this image and superscription?”’ (As . 


if he did not know!) ‘Cesar’s,” they reply. And then 
the wisdom of his answer makes them marvel: “Very well, 
this coin is stamped with Cesar’s image; then it is no more 
than right that you should give it to Cesar; but your soul 
is stamped with God’s image, so it is no more than right 
that you should give it to him!” 

Giving our soul to God means most of all giving it to the 


search for truth. Unwittingly the enemies of Jesus here pre- 


serve for us one of the finest statements of his magnificent 
honesty and ‘transparent sincerity. “Master,” they said (and 
the tones of bitter mockery were in the voice) “we know 
that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, 
neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the 
‘person of men.” That was plainly true! Jesus felt it his 
divine duty to state the truth without regard to whom it in- 
jured or what hoary Tie it exploded. He was there to teach 
the way to God, and he did it with the most relentless sin- 
‘cerity. Worldly wise men who laugh at Jesus’ religion as 
‘superstition should consider this testimony of his enemies. 
As a matter of ‘plain fact all truly religious men, seatening 
152 


THE NEW HONESTY [VII-3] 


for their God through their loyalty to truth have had the: 
experience of the writer of “The Magic Flute’: “Where all 
else is doubtful this one thing is sure—the impulse that drives 
me on to truth. Though I deny all else, I cannot deny that. 
I may never find, but I must always seek. To that bottom 
my wanderings have brought me, and it is firm.’ And Robert. 
Collyer hints at the suffering which all prophets must en- 
dure who would follow Jesus in the struggle for a truth- 
ful religion: “TI tell you it is no matter what you may come 
to be, as the result of your true and honest life. Men may 
revile you and cast you out; but through it all, if you are 
true to God, you shall feel that there is a life of the soul 
that pales all others in its exceeding glory.” The proper 
tribute to God is a fearless search for all his truth. This. 
spirit of dedication to God through truth has been beauti- 
fully phrased in a recent popular song, written by Maude 
Louise Ray: 


“To follow truth as blind men long for light, 
To do my best from dawn of day till night, 
To keep my heart fit for his holy sight, 
And answer when he calls: this is my task 


p?* 


Seventh Week, Third Day 
% 

But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! 
for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye 
neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are 
entering to goin.... 

Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever 
shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever 
shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! 
Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the 
temple that sanctifieth the gold? And, Whosoever shall 
swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth 
by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. Ye fools and blind: 
for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth 
the gift? 

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye 
pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted | 
the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith; 
these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other 
undone. 

153 


Pe en DS eS eee FS Se are et Lee ape? ee ae eee “ee a a Ste 4 Moe! 


[VII-3] THE MASTER'S MESSAGE 


he blind guides, which strain at a gnat and swallow a 
camel. 

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye 
make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but 
within they are full of extortion and excess; Thou blind 
Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and 
platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. 

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye 
are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beau- 
tiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and ~ 
of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear 
righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy 
and iniquity. 

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because 
ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepul- 
chres of the righteous, and say, If we had been in the days 
of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them 
in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses 
unto yourselves, that ye be the children of them which killed 
the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. 

Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape 
the damnation of hell?—Matt. 23: part of 13-33. 


Never was there a more tremendous denunciation than this. 
Let any one read the entire twenty-third chapter of Matthew 
meditatively, and he will be convinced that here, as nowhere 
-else, is the naked soul of Christ aflame against the worst 
sinning of all! And obviously it is the sin of falseness, of 
perfidious iniquity posing as respectability. 

We need not think that Pharisees are the only ones in his- 
story deserving such denunciation. Human society, over and 
over again, has beea guilty of exactly the same sin. The — 
church, bearing the very name of Christ, has repeatedly done 
the very things which Jesus here analyzes with such scorch- 
ing censure. Shutting folk from the kingdom of the spirit — 
and not going in herself—the church has done that. Swear- — 
ing by gold and gifts and not the holy temple and the sacred — 
altar—the church has done that. Confining attention to tithes 
and neglecting justice, mercy, truth—the church has done 
that. Straining at little gnats of sins like intemperance and 
irreligion, and swallowing great big evils like slander, in- 
dustrial injustice, and mammon-worship—the church has done — 
that. Making a polished outward appearance of eminent re- 
spectability, yet within full of bitter quarrels, meannesses, ac- — 

154 . 





THE NEW HONESTY [VII-4] 


rid animosities, and hatreds—the church has done that. Burn- 
ing prophets at the stake, stretching .them on the rack, or 
breaking the hearts of heretics with persecution—certainly the 
church has done that. 

This terrific indictment by Jesus of the wily hypocrites of 
his day is a cutting challenge to modern church and society 
to make imward righteousness conform to outward respecta- 
bility! The simple, pure Savior must chasten our sins again: 


“Not through the empty mazes of old theology, 

Hiding thy simple message in intricate words, 

Throning thee in the heavens, turning your life to a creed, 

You who knew as a brother the call of a brother’s need, 

Who knew the glory of serving, of facing with fearless eyes 

The shame of a dead religion’s charneled hypocrisies, 

And drove in thy flaming anger with a whip of knotted cord 

The shrinking slaves from the Temple, who buy and sell 
their Lord. 

Come to us, O Jesus, come as you came of yore 

When you walked with Andrew and Peter by the Galilean 


shore, 

And called to the young men fishing, as I to the hearts of 
men, 

Is it strange that the loving Jesus should wander his world 
again?” 


Seventh Week, Fourth Day 


Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, 
and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high 
priest, who was called Caiaphas, and consulted that they 
might take Jesus by subtlety, and kill him. But they said, 
Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the 
people.— Matt. 26: 3-5. 


The simplicity of this picture gives us an insight into the 
subtle craftiness and unscrupulous cunning of Jesus’s en- 
emies. They hold a consultation to plan his ruin. But he 
must be taken and killed diplomatically, “not on a feast day. 
lest there be an uproar among the people.” The shrewd, evil 
motives of their hearts are not hidden; they are playing poli- 
tics; they are afraid of this man, and he must be gotten out 
of the way. 

155 


[VII-5] THE MASTER’S- MESSAGE ae 


In our churches, our businesses, our communities we find 
today, also, the foxy politicians. They are always thinking 
of how they can best further their own ends without any 
regard for mercy or honesty. They will do anything to win, 
anything from slandering a brother to groveling at the feet 
of a bishop or a man of wealth. They consent that stealing 
a horse is stealing; they punish the culprit and condemn the 
fault. But. often in the church, in the government, Lord 
help you! swindling, stealing, crucifying is called by some 
fine name and grandiloquently passed for “policy.” 

The Brother of peace and tenderness and love they made 
the cause of half the wars in history, and called it “policy.” 
The Rejecter of earthly goods, the wayfaring preacher in 
sandals and girdle they made the cause for the pomp of pontiff 
and prince and cardinal and bishop, with robes of purple and 
_ palaces of marble and gold, and called it “policy.” . The humble 
Friend of the slave, the poor, and the outcast they made the 
cause for stretching the masses on a cross of mdustrial ex- 
ploitation, and called it “policy.” The Man of truth and 
fearless honesty they made the bearer of - superstitious SyS- 
tems of theology with which they poisoned the minds of 
children, and called it “policy.” 

Now as never before we need to know this fact: Jesus 
never surrendered honesty to diplomacy, and the knave who 
does can be no follower of his! Whittier sounds the note 
of true Christian idealism in his poem, “For Righteousness’ 
Sake,” when he says: : . 


“God’s ways seem dark, but, soon or late, 
They touch the shining hills of day; 
The evil cannot brook delay, 
The good can well afford to wait. 
Give ermined knaves their hour of crime; 
Ye have the future grand and great, 
The safe appeal of Truth to Time!” 


Seventh Week, Fifth Day 


Now Peter sat without in the palace: and a damsel came 
unto him, saying, Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee. But 
he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou 
Sayest. And when he was Bone out into the porch, another 

15 





THE NEW HONESTY [VII-s]} 


maid saw him, and said unto them that were there, This. 
fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth. And again he 
denied with an oath, I do not know the man. And after a 
while came unto him they that stood by, and said to Peter, 
Surely thou also art one of them; for thy speech bewrayeth. 
thee. Then began he to curse and swear, saying, I know 
not the man. And immediately the cock crew. And Peter 
remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before 
the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went. 
out and wept bitterly.—Matt. 26: 69-75. 


Insincerity results not alone from lip service without heart. 
loyalty, the squeamishness which makes men disloyal to God, 
inward vileness which belies outward estimability, and the 
diplomacy which puts policy first and honesty last, but also 
from dangerous circumstances which cause the surrender of 
high loyalties in the face of great fears. 

We can sympathize with Peter. He was confused, shocked, 
terrified by the sudden disaster which had overtaken Jesus. 
It seemed every one had turned against the Master. Petrified. 
with fear, lest he too be dragged before Pilate for sedition 
and crucified, and carried along by the wave of popular hos- 
tility to Jesus, Peter three times disavowed his Lord, the: 
third time even cursing and swearing against his Master.. 
Afterward, overcome with his utter failure, we see him weep- 
ing bitterly. 

Let us not criticize Peter. If there is any common ailment: 
of Christians today it is the old trouble: disavowing Jesus 
when the world makes it hard for us to take a stand for the 
Master's convictions! We too become petrified, heart-hardened. 
In the office, in the shop, on the street, in the home, when 
the chance comes for us to stand for Jesus Christ and his. 
pure ideals how often we deny the Savior and his way. We 
lack moral backbone. We are even ashamed to mention his 
name, to say we go to his church, to avow that he is our 
spiritual leader. Js it honorable to join his church, take his 
holy name on our lips, and then go out before the world and 
in every moral crisis, repudiate him? 

“If I had been in Palestine 
A poor disciple I had been. 
‘ I had not risked or purse or limb 
All to forsake and follow Him. 
157 


. 4 — = = ~~ ee ee ol a OS 





[VII-6] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE eee a, 


“With the glad crowd that sang the psalm, 
I too had sung, and strewed the palm; 
Then slunk away in dastard shame 

When the High Priest denounced His name. 


“Beside the cross when Mary prayed, | 
A great way off I too had stayed; 
Not even in that hour had dared, ji 
And for my dying Lord declared. 


“But beat upon my craven breast, 
And loathed my coward heart, at least, : . 
To think my life I dared not stake 
And beard the Romans for His sake!” 


Seventh Week, Sixth Day 


And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, ; 
came, and with him a great multitude with swords and 
staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people. 
Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whom- 
soever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast. And 
forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, Master; and 
kissed him.—Matt. 26: 47-49. 


Ga halal ¥\ 0 


There is much to make us believe Judas was a good and 
able man. Jesus himself selected him as one of the twelve. 
Because of his financial ability he was appointed custodian 
of the funds of the little company. A creeping leprosy of 
the soul, however, must have been growing upon him for 
weeks before it was revealed in the doing of the dastardly 
deed of betrayal. It was an ingrowing selfishness which in 
the end came to the point where a few pieces of silver meant 
more to him than his Master. 

The brothers of Judas are still with us. Simulating affec- - 
tion they go up to temples, and feigning allegiance they caress 
him with words, and speaking through their creeds, they say: 
“Hail, Master!” Then, when they get to the factory, the 
financial district, or the shop, they forthwith forget their pious 
protestations in the selfish pursuit of shekels. They are ready 
to sell their own soul, their Christs, and their brothers, for 
the sake of profits: W hen we take any money under circum- 

158 


eS 


ma. 





THE NEW HONESTY [VIt=7] =, 


stances which outrage the high ideals of Jesus, which we hold 
in trust, we betray him as truly as did Judas! 


“Hear them on Sundays with a pious bliss 
Saying ‘Hail, Master’ with the Judas kiss, 
Droning in churches from their perfumed pews 
Empty hosannas on the Christmas morn, 

When in vile brothels and in shameless stews 
Some unacknowledged, birth-cursed Christ is born 
Of some sad madonna whom the good folk’scorn. 


“Not by the walls of dead Jerusalems 

Breaks the brave heart before betraying friends, 
But here, each day, in hands that clasp and cling, 
With faces stained by foul disease and shame, 
With bodies bowed beneath the cross they bring, 
Walk the sad Christs, hungering and lame!” 


Seventh Week, Seventh Day : 


Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blas- 
phemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy 
against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men, 
And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, 
it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the 
Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this 
world, neither in the world to come.—Matt. 12: 31-32. 


The Holy Ghost is nothing else but the Holy Spirit in the 
human heart. Call it conscience if you choose; call it the 
inner voice of Almighty God; call it the Christ-spirit in man. 
Whatever the name, it is a reality. It is the light in every 
man which is born into the world. 

Flinching here is fatal. Man must recognize this light, 
heed it, follow it, be ever terribly true to it, or he will die, 
spiritually, mentally and even physically. By this star of the 
soul the son of man must steer with a merciless sincerity. 
In following the guiding of this Holy Ghost of conscience 
it may be necessary to steer straight across all cherished or- 
thodoxies, conventions, and accepted ways of men. Every 
departure, every turning, every deviating from the following. 
of this light will lead man deeper into a darkness and blind- 

159 


[VII-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


? 
ness of the soul which is worse than death. Every loyalty 
to this light will help others to find their way to God through 
that sincerity. Every welcoming of the Holy Ghost will bring © 
deeper peace and joy, will be used of God for one’s fellow- 
men. The clear bright honesty of that life will become as a 
candle in some lonely spot, as a beacon for storm-tossed 
mariners, or as a star set high for multitudes to follow. 

But let that light be denied, and God himself cannot pre- 
vent the moral destruction which must follow. This Holy 
Ghost in man, as in Jesus, is the divinest thing we know on 
earth. The desecration of it by deliberate falseness is unfor, 
_givable! 


“This is the sin against the Holy Ghost: 

To speak of bloody power as right divine, < 
And call on God to guard each vile chief’s house, 

And for such chiefs turn men to wolves and swine. 


“This is the sin against the Holy Ghost: 
This is the sin no purging can atone: 

To send forth rapine in the name of Christ: 
To set the face and make the heart a stone.” 


MEDITATION ON THE MASTER’S THOUGHT 


Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of 
old time,- Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform 
unto the Lord thine oaths: But I say unto you, Swear not 
at all; neither by. heaven; for it is God’s throne: nor ‘by the 
earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is 
the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy 
head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. 
But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for 
whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.—Matt. 
5! 33-37. : 

I 

When we first read these words of Jesus we may suppose 
that they refer to that quite common abnormality, in the 
past and still today, of using the holiest names of the race 
in vulgar oath or curse. This habit of profanity has been 
defined as the mental disease that results from a starved vo- 
cabulary. But the more we ponder these words of the Master 

160 





THE NEW HONESTY [VII-m] 


_the more do we discover that they go deeper; they penetrate 
‘to the roots of one of. the most serious problems in human 
life, the problem of dishonesty. The substance of the old 
law regarding honesty is stated by Jesus: Thou shalt not 
forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine 
oaths (see Num. 30:2). This meant that if a man swore 
before the Lord to do a thing, he was morally obligated to 
do it; if he bound his soul with an oath he was not to break 
his word. Now, obviously the reverse of this law was taken 
for granted: If you do not swear before the lord you are 
not morally obligated; if you do not bind your soul with an 
oath you may break your word! We may well believe that 
such a precarious custom as this made it possible for in- 
numerable tricksters to take advantage of the people. Jesus 
spurns such unworthy standards. He says: “This law is 
not enough, you are not to swear at all, neither by the heaven 
nor the earth, neither by Jerusalem nor the hairs of your 
head, but let your plain word be as good as your bond. Stoop 
to no trickery, no subterfuge; but let the transparent honesty 
of your life speak for you. You should not need to go into 
long-winded evasions; simplify your conversation and your 
life by sincerity. Yes and no is enough to tell the truth. 
Whatever is more than the truth is evil and will work evil.” 

We can see that Jesus is pleading here for one of the fun- 
damental virtues. He is pleading for the unembellished charm 
of a simple sincerity. There is no quality quite like it, for 
when we see it in a man or a woman, it is as if the very breath 
of heaven had come to our hearts. It is a life as chaste 
‘and fragrant as the lilies of the field, as the flowers of the 
meadows. It is such a life as radiates toward others nothing 
but love and light. It is to be as simple as a little child, 
to be as innocent and true as that utter undesigning frank- 
ness which characterizes the face of a little child. It is to 
have a life in which there is nothing to hide, transparent as 
_ daylight, as free from deceit and all deception as the sky is 
free from pollution. Matthew Arnold describes how fair is 
such artless simplicity: 


“Plainness and clearness without shadow of stain! 

Clearness divine! 

Ye heavens, whose pure dark regions have no sign 
161 


~ 


[VII-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


Of languor, though so calm, and though so great 
Are yet untroubled and unpassionate! 

Who, though so noble, share in the world’s toil, 
And, though so task’d, keep free from dust and soil! 


“How vast, yet of what clear transparency ! 

How it were good to live there, and breathe free! 
How fair a lot to fill 

Is left to each man still!” 


Surely Longfellow was right when he said: “In character, in 
manners, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is 
simplicity !” 

. Diogenes, searching in vain in Athens of old for an honest 
man, is the prototype of many a soul today. For reliable men, 
men who can be counted upon through thick and thin, men 
who make their word as good as their bond, how rare they 
are in our day, too! An unfortunate and unhappy English 
poet, on trial in a sordid London courtroom, hopelessly in 
the wrong, could yet force cheers from the floor by his simple, 


frank replies to the tricky lawyers who cross-examined. How 
attractive is sincerity even in strange places! No finer com- ~ 


pliment could be paid to anyone than that which Shakespeare 
gives to one of his characters: 


“His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles ; 

His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate; 

His tears pure messengers sent from his heart; 

His heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth.” 


Above all other virtues we are to cultivate “the simplicity 
that is in Christ.” (2 Cor. 11:13.) 


IT 


But as beautiful and attractive and worthy as we may rec- 


ognize the virtue of sincerity to be, there are barriers against 

our possessing it which often seem insurmountable. There 

are elements in human nature, acquisitiveness and rivalry and 

trickery, which urge us on to get the better of our neighbors 

without regard to right and wrong. And in the scheme of 

our society there are situations which seem to make sincerity 
162 


- . f : = 
re Pee ee ee ee ae 





ee eee eee ee ee Pe ee es 


THE NEW HONESTY — [VII-m] 


and absolute frankness and honesty unusually difficult, if not 
absolutely impossible. But chief among the causes of dis- 
honesty in our day is a weakmindedness which likes to lie. 
Perhaps the author of “The Pleasures of Lying,” Clemence 
Dane, is chiefly in a playful mood when she says such things 
as: “Kit, the blessed baby, is also experimenting with the 
pleasures of lying. Why not? Lie for the love of it, and 
the lie becomes a work of art. . . . The lie is the gilt on 
life’s gingerbread!” It may be that it is only a gentle twist- 
ing of the word “lie’ to cover harmless fairy tales told in 
fun. At least this is sure: The article in question is good 
proof that the line between the innocent legend and the tricky, 
deliberate lie is becoming very misty in our minds. A few 
years ago men used to debate the question: Is a lie ever 
justifiable? A few years hence we shall be hearing lectures 
on “How to Make your Lying Enjoyable.” The pendulum 
has swung so far over in reaction to the rigid, false code 


of honesty of the Puritan that the cheerful, unblushing liar 


is not at all unfashionable. There are other root causes, of 
course, for a crime wave, but a truly important one is the 
general light, careless, popular insincerity which makes all 
forms of cheating easy. 

A journalist tells us of a suave modern swindler who had 
no trouble swindling the secretary of the Society for the 
Suppression of Swindling. Whether the rib-tickling tale is 
true or not we cannot tell, but the story indicates, at least, 
‘one of the commonest characteristics of our educated age: 
More folk than ever before are making a living by a suave 
cleverness in the art of deception! One only needs to call 
to mind the charlatans who sell patent medicines, the fakers 
who advertise books which will help you do anything from 
grow hair to preach a peppier sermon, the smirking fortune 
tellers, and fifty-seven varieties of quacks, spiritual, mental, 
and medicinal. The growing acclimation of banditry as a 
profession is reflected in. the testimony of a prominent city 
magistrate, William McAdoo of New York City, “When I 
was a boy, you could spot a bad character at once when you 
looked at him, But to-day the gunmen, murderers, and rob- 
bers are stave, well-dressed young men who look like fashion. 
plates.” Civilization should not be startled if some fine day 
the morning’s paper tells of the praying burglar who says 
163 


[VII-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


f 
his prayers before he goes to work. Scott was writing a 
good many years ago but he describes for us many a modern 
young man: 


“Not serve two masters! Here’s a youth will try it— 
Would fain serve God and yet give the devil his due, 
Says grace before he does a deed of villainy, 

And returns thanks devoutly when ’tis acted!” 7 


The poisoning power of the increasing dishonesty is very 
great. Imagine a great city lying before you; from thousands 
of chimneys you see rising clouds. of black smoke. Soor a 
heavy, hazy pall, like a shroud, darkens the sun and blots out 
the stars. Thus up from the chimneys of society our insin- 
cerities and lies rise like sooty smoke to settle down on our 
common spiritual life in a palling smut of dark deceit and 
immorality. Every breath of insincerity: and untruth we 
breathe upon the world adds just so much to the common 
spiritual darkness and oppressiveness. 

Two little girls once conversed in my hearing: 

“Do you know Tommy Jones?” said one. “Well, yesterday 
in school he tried to copy from my arithmetic paper; you 
know what I did? I wrote the wrong answer down, and 
after he'd got it, I rubbed it out and put the right one down, 
Served him right for copying!” ; | 

“O, Mary!” warned the other, “you shouldn’t have done . 
that. Don’t you know it’s wrong to deceive!” 

So very innocently the experience of cheating begins. So 
begins the practice of deception which may end in something 
far worse. Contemporary dishonesty is a condition of the 
popular mind which makes defection easy for everybody! The 
attention which a man attracts to himself by being deliberate- 
ly honest is disclosed by the incident of the Civil War veteran 
who wrote to the pension bureau in Washington to have his 
name dropped from the list. He had been suffering from a 
supposedly incurable disease, contracted in the army, but 
had fully recovered. The authorities were so astonished at 
such unheard of honesty that they sent an investigator to 
interview the man, supposing him to be insane. 

In the new day of Jesus when men have taken his ideals 
and lived them, when brother will meet with brother knowing 

164 





THE NEW HONESTY [VII-m] 


that each comes with simple, unalloyed sincerity, as frank 
as the day, like Jesus himself, our witness, our bond, and 
our testimony will be as good as our life and will not need 
to be written or oathed over or sworn to. Notary publics 
will not need to sign for us; there will be no swearing over 
sacred books to establish our word as true; there will be no 
contracts, no courts, no lawsuits. And strange as it may seem, 
there is a place in our own time which comes very near em- 
bodying that lofty ideal. An African missionary tells of a 
tribe in central Africa where no officials are necessary, no 
courts, no judges, no lawyers. Extraordinary happiness and 
peace reign in the village. Stealing is almost unknown, as 
well as marital quarrels. The secret is a strong public opinion 
against all forms of corruption. If a man is discovered in 
dishonesty, the village adults meet in the evening and a 
spokesman for the tribe solemnly warns the offender. Follow- 
ing a second offense, the tribe is called together and the same 
warning is given. After a third offense (which practically 
never happens) the culprit is called to the village group again, 
and after a solemn farewell, sent from the village out into 
the forest. It works. That black tribe in the depths of the 
jungle can teach civilization lessons in peace, social happiness, 
and high morality! 

In the very last chapter in the Bible the writer has some- 
thing to say about those who, by virtue of their own be- 
havior, have qualified or disqualified themselves for entry 
into the heavenly kingdom. “I am Alpha and Omega, the 
beginning and the ending, the first and the last. Blessed are 
they that do his commandments that they have the right to 
the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates of the 
city. But without are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers 
and idolaters and murderers and whosoever loveth and maketh 
a lie!” (Revelation 22: 13-15.) 


Ill 


We sometimes have a shock in life, when we discover that 
some people are not really as good as we thought they were. 
They prove themselves not as fine as they look. They are 
untrue to their educational advantages. They have failed to 
fulfil the promise of their youth. Their character does not 

165 


[VII-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE Ms 
seem to match their personality. Their fruits do not match 
their faith. If we will but take time to think more deeply 
upon the matter, however, I think we shall come to the con- 
clusion that instead of appearing better than they are, by 
far the majority of people are better, far better than they 
appear to be. There is, therefore, a kind of insincerity more 
common than that of deliberate dishonesty: the insincerity 
of smothering our own goodness. 

Fundamentally, deep down, practically every man has a heart 
of gold, but he is actually ashamed to be thought of as good. 
He goes through the world living an inconsistent life, not 
living up to the best that is in him, not expressing his best, 
deliberately making people think of him as a grouch, an ig- 
noramus, a sinner, when we know of golden possibilities in 
him which belie the impression he makes. A man once re- 
fused to unite with the congregation I was serving because 
he insisted that his life was so unworthy he was not a fit 
candidate for any church. I happened to know that he was 
one of the best-hearted men in the state. Of course we ad- 
mire humility, but here was a case where a man was carrying 
humility too far. He was inconsistent. Actually he was 
living a good life; in his own mind he was a “miserable 
sinner.’ He was smothering a beautiful light of character 
under a depressing bushel of personal depreciation. 

One of the commonest forms of that insincerity which 
smothers potential goodness is the fear of independent think- | 
ing! We are actually afraid to express ourselves because — 
we think the statements of others are more likely to be true 
than our own. So our heads become patchwork quilts of — 
other people’s thoughts. A glass eye, a wooden leg, false | 
teeth, a waxen nose, a wig—these artificialities we shrink © 
from. But our reason becomes disastrously debilitated by — 
atrophy so often that we needs must prop it with the glass 
eyes, wooden legs, false teeth, wigs, and waxen noses of 
ideas which we borrow from others. In our minds are divine 
and original powers. There is a charm in the natural, un- 
affected spontaneity of our own thinking which is one of 
the truest ways God has of expressing his life in us. Instead 
of tying the flowers on we ought to be letting the natural 
buds unfold. Naturalness is the soul of sincerity, and 
natural things are always best. The most beautiful artificial 

166 . 


ed a ea ee 









THE NEW HONESTY. [VII-m] 


flowers cannot compare with the humblest violet by the road- 
way. The most beautiful pictures ever painted are no match 
for the ordinary landscape colored with the beauties of na- 
ture. The most expensive rouge ever put on a girl’s cheek 
is ugly beside the beauty of natural color. We spoil our 
lives by failing to be our natural selves; we ruin our minds 
by neglecting to think for ourselves. “I had a teacher once,” 
said Henry van Dyke, “who helped me to think for myself— 
the first of my real teachers; and what the others gave me 
came through the door that he opened.” Thinking is the 
starting-place of character and no life is true and strong 
which lacks the honesty of original thought! Victor E. South- 
worth has expressed better than I can the gist of the matter 
in his keen poem: 


@ 
““Follow me not,’ the wise man said, 
‘But go the way of your heart instead. 


““The power divine in you has wrought— 
Follow the way of your honest thought. 


““Follow the light within your breast 
For it alone gives strength and rest.’ 


“This was the word of the man divine: 
‘Follow your heart as I do mine!” 


A patient in a school of occupational therapy was given 
two work-beskets, one on each side of her, and was required 
to work with left and right hands alternately. “Why,” said 
the woman, who tried it for a few days, “I never knew I had 
a left hand before.” There are in our bodies, minds, and 
souls smothered capacities, all unused and undreamed of. We 
are using nowhere near all of ourselves. Within us are capa- 
cities for sympathizing and. working for others that we have 
not realized. We have, locked away, wisdom for life’s prob- 
lems, glad-hearted tenderness for lonely, bruised souls, burden- 
bearing powers, hidden treasures of spirituality, lying all 
unused within us. Visions of God, experiences of his good- 
ness, blessings from his hand have been ours, and we have 
not thought of sharing them with others. Until we com- 
mence to cultivate with use the neglected powers of our hid- 

167 


{VI-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 

; 
den life we cannot be honest with God, with our neighbors, 
or ourselves. 


“Use all your hidden forces. Do not miss 
The purpose of this life and do not wait 
For circumstance to mold or change your fate. 
In your own self lies destiny. Let this 
Vast truth cast out all fear, all prejudice, 
All hesitation. . . . 
* * * * * * * 


‘Once let the spiritual laws be understood, 
Material things must answer and obey.” 


: IV 


Character is what we are. Reputation is only what men — 
think we are. Our own heart and not other men’s opinions 
about us is the test of our honor. It is, I think, almost 
‘universally true that all men begin by wanting to be true 
and right in their own hearts. They see that to be right 
‘in the heart is one of life’s chiefest glories. No one, however, 
strives long to keep his heart right and true without eventually 
coming to this discovery: To know the truth and speak it, to 
know what is right and do it, that is one of the most dificult 
things in the world! For just what is truth? » Pilate asked 
the. question long ago and we are still trying to answer it. 
Just how shall we encompass a right life? The young man 
‘who came to Jesus asked the question and he went away sor- 
‘rowing because he was unwilling to pay the price to find out. 
Many men come to this crucial- question of life with the 
cynicism of Huxley: “I protest that if some great Power 
would agree to make me always think what is true and do 
what is right, on condition of being turned into a sort of 
clock and wound up every mcrning, I should instantly close 
with the offer!” Scientists, giving their life-blood to capture © 
-truth, find in the end but fragments in their hands. Saints, — 
-striving continually to plumb the depths of duty and to climb 
the heights of honor, find themselves at last only a little on the — 
way. Trueness and rightness men want but often they find 
4t all too hard. 

A timidity in the presence of facts is one common source 

168 F 





THE NEW HONESTY [VII-m] 


of our spiritual difficulties. If we faced facts fearlessly and’ 
resolutely our problems would be cut in two. Here is a 
man who knows his teeth need attention. There are evidences: 
of decay in bad breath and the throbbing irritation of tooth- 
ache. But he dodges the dentist by telling himself all will 
_ be well. He ends with a continual array of tooth and body 
troubles, because in the first place he wouldn’t face facts. 
Or, here is a woman whose doctor tells her the truth about 
her condition—she should have an operation at once. Fear 
makes her practice deception upon herself—she keeps telling 
herself she will be better. The end of such failure to face 
facts is death. But there are even deeper, subtler forms of 
this type of insincerity. Psychiatrists in the study of nervous: 
and mental ailments find it difficult to get at the root of these. 
troubles because people will cleverly evade moral issues which 
center in themselves. There are favorite temptations, secret. 
faults, little hidden sins which they will not drag to day- 
light and destroy. That sad insincerity which looks in the 
mirror of life, perceives blemishes, yet goes away leaving 
them all unredeemed is well expressed in the New Testa- 
ment: “But be ye,doers of the word, and not hearers only, 
deceiving your’ own selves. For if any be a hearer of the 
word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his | 
natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth 
his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he 
was.” (James 1 :22-24.) 

To face facts fearlessly with the faith of Jesus is the first 
step on the road to a right life. To be positively honest with 
ourselves as we view our own lives in the mirror of the 
Master’s scale of values is the solution of the spiritual prob- 
lem of being true. He is the way, the truth, and the life 
because in his presence we see incarnate the highest sincerity, 
the noblest righteousness which man’s mind can conceive. It 
is a perfectly marvelous fact to realize that here in this mam 
was such a life as would redeem the world if all followed it. 
To be a Christian means to be as courageously strict with 
ourselves as Christ was with himself. It means surrendering 
the finest show for the poorest reality. It implies frequently 
' surrendering the confidence of others that we may go the way’ 
of truth. It means standing squarely up to the social conse- 
quences of our own actions. It implies the courage to cross- 

169 


[VII-m] THE MASTER'S MESSAGE 


examine our own souls to discover and correct faults: “My 
conscience, I want to ask you a question. If the whole world 
was to be guided by you, would it be a better world? Would 
deceit and falsehood be banished altogether? Would malice, 
selfishness and lust be entirely eliminated? Tell me truly, if 
every other conscience worked like yours, would the world be a 
good place in which to live?” 


“If all of the things in your dreams had come true, 
Would the earth have been very much better for you? 


“If you'd got what you asked for whenever you prayed, 
What sort of a place would your prayers have made? 


“Tf creating the world had been left in your care, 
How would you have furnished the everywhere? | 


“As it is don’t you think things are nicely arranged, 
With only yourself that needs to be changed?” 


A serene, deep-founded sincerity, then, a sincerity which 
rings true, not based on the dissimulation which seeks applause 
of others, must always be based, as it was in the case of 
Jesus, on the unflinching courage which looks life squarely 
in the face and keeps true, no matter what the world offers 
as prizes for deviating, no matter what wordly people choose 


to think. To achieve this authentic Christian veracity re- 


quires courageous constancy like a Christ who goes to his 
bloody cross rather than prove false to his deepest convic- 
tions. Any honesty which does not go so deep is but painted 
falsehood. It cannot be genuine becatise it does not face all 
the facts. “I should say sincerity,” said Carlyle, “a deep, 
great, genuine sincerity is the-first great characteristic of all 
men in any way heroic!” The same truth an anonymous poet 
has stated in flaming words that burn across our deceitful 
modern life like red hot irons: 


“To be sincere! To look«life in the eyes 
With calm, undrooping gaze! Always to mean 
The high and truthful thing! Never to screen 
Behind the unmeant word the sharp surprise 
Of cunning, never to tell the little lies 

170 








THE NEW HONESTY [ VII-m] 


Of look or thought; always to choose 

Between the true and large, the true and small, serene 
And. high above life’s cheap dishonesties ! 

The soul that steers by this unfading star 

Needs never other compass! All the far 

Wide waste shall blaze with guiding light, though rocks 
And sirens meet and mock its straining gaze, 

Secure from storms and all life’s battle Shocks, 

It shall not veer from any righteous ways.” 


V 


We have seen how insincerity arises: from the weakminded- 
ness of deliberate lying, out of the sin of smothered good- 
ness, and from the dread of facing facts. We now come to 
the most subtle insincerity of all: dodging life’s vital issues 
by clever compromise. There is, for example, the compro- 
mise of false modesty. There are those who make splendid 
pretensions about their own morals and frown furiously upon 
others whom they deem shameless and indecent. They speak 
of the perfect morality of the good old days and wax elo- 
quent in denouncing the members of the adventurous younger 
generation. They do this, knowing perfectly well that the 
transgressions of today are not new at all, that whereas of 
old they were committed under cover, today there is a frank- 
ness and aboveboard attitude which shocks but which is all 
on the side of honesty. This bubble of compromising pre- 
tension is punctured by the keen mind of Ella Wheeler Wil- 
cox! 
“True modesty dwells 
In the same breast with knowledge, and takes no offense, 
Truth never harmed anything yet but pretense. 

There are fashions in modesty; what in your time 

Had been deemed little less than an absolute crime 

In matters of dress, or behavior, today 

Is the custom. And however daring you may 

Deem our manners and modes, yet, were facts fully known, 
Our morals compare very well with your own!” 


Another common type of compromise is the false faith 
which claims to be free of all doubt. It is characterized by 
the crass generalizations which speak of the dogmas of re- 

v7 


{VII-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


Se 
ligion as “being established beyond the possibility of doubt.” 


And it is not unusual to hear devotees of this particular com- 
promise saying that they have never had one single doubt 


-about anything in their faith in all their lives! The fdlsity of — 


these assertions is revealed when we pin these folk down to 
andividual aspects of their faith; they reveal then that they 


shave no deep-rooted certainty at all, but are hiding behind a — 


smoke screen of secondhand religion and doubting all the time. 


See some folk at funerals when loved ones go, and how their — 


faith collapses under the strain. . “The most celebrated of 


charlatans and the boldest of tyrants,” said Volney, speaking — 


of Mohammed, “begins his extraordinary tissue of lies with 
these words: ‘There is no doubt in this book!’” Real faith 
begins with honest doubt, and no amount of false compro- 
mising with truth can be compared with the fearless, frank 
questioning of every aspect of religion. 

Again, there is the compromise of gambling. A gambler is 
one who wants to get without giving. He wants to win life’s 
struggle by luck and not by pluck. He expects gain by the 
‘turn of a wheel instead of the hard road of work. Many a 
‘man who is noble and true in every other way goes down to 
‘a deep hole of trouble and moral destruction because he com- 
Promises with one of the many forms of gambling: specula- 
tion in stocks, cards for money, roulette wheel, etc, etc. The 
evil behind the gambling compromise is the violation of a 
fundamental prineiple of honesty: Life’s values are most 
Aonorably received, not on a basis of accident, but on a basis 
of service rendered. 


Moreover, there is the compromise of half-honesty. How ? 
pleasant it is to let our tongues slip easily and plausibly over 


little. half-truths, not deliberately deceiving, but just turning 
the truth enough to fit our purpose. We satisfy our easy- 
‘going consciences by just telling enough of the truth to make 


our story reasonable. We defend our spiritual disobedience — 


by showing only the white side of the shield. Tennyson re- 


veals his usual spiritual discernment when he puts the matter 


thus: 


“A lie which is half a truth is ever the greatest of lies, 


Since a lie which is all a lie may be met and fought outright, _ 
But a lie which is part a truth is a harder matter to fight.” 


172 : 


alt at Oe ee i 








ane ae eS ee ee ee BE ON eer re Ta oe ae on eee 
le ee Sar ‘ S a 
3 


a 


THE NEW HONESTY © [VII-m] 


The youth movement so universal in our day is nothing else’ 
but a mighty protest against the obvious compromises with. 
truth which undermine modern life. It is the rebellion of 
an intensely honest generation against the false modesty which. 
parades as virtue, against the untruthful attitude which de- 
nounces doubt as sin, against the gambling spirit which seeks’ 
to gain life’s good things by chance, and against that crowd 
of plausible half-truths, abroad in our world, masquerading’ 
as sacred verities. Max Miiller is not far from the spirit of 
these adventurous young people when he says: ‘With real 
faith I believe one can pass.through this life without let or 
hindrance. What I dread are compromises. There are false 
notes in them always, and a false note goes on forever.” 


VI 


Up to now we have been noticing in this chapter certain’ 
elements in personal honesty. We have been following fairly 
closely the well-beaten track of the traditional code. This 
standard of honor may be limited by a few well-placed rules: 
do not lie, pay your bills, do not steal, keep yourself within 
the well-fenced area of the accepted morality of respectable 
society. A little knowledge of the world and its ways, a little’ 
insight into the realities of life, however, will serve to remind 
us that one who lives up to the letter of the traditional 
code, indeed, a very paragon of virtue in the eyes of the “best 
people,” may still be very far from the standard of Jesus. 
For he may be lacking in another kind of honor which we 


- may term for lack of a better name: social honesty. He may 


be guilty before God of one of the most mischievous and 
diabolical forms of dishonesty which now infect our social 
system. George Bernard Shaw in his usual penetrating style 
pulls the mask from this popular scheme of insincerity when 
he says: “A great deal of the morality which is taught at 
the present time, and which children are taught to regard as 
very sacred, and as being the quintessence of honesty, you 
must remember, is nothing but picking pockets and trying to 
cover up the fact with fine phrases.” 

This insight is based on the clear recognition that there is. 
more than one kind of theft for which God will hold mew 

173 


- 


[VII-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE ° 


guilty. There is the theft of acquiring that which is not! our 
personal property. There is also another, that of defrauding 
others by retaining that which we owe them. Parents may 
rob their children of tender affection and religious training. 
We may rob our employers of the time for which they pay 
us. Families may be robbed of peace and happiness by the 
sons and daughters who recognize no obligation to the home. 
God may be robbed of that which is properly due him: our 
reverence, our loyalty, our communion. This type of stealing, 
which retains unfairly, has many expressions, but the form 
concerning which we are most interested now, and which is 
the most common and most dangerous, is this: the industrial 
imperialism which steals opportunity, health, and wage from 
the helpless worker. 

The biggest lies, the vilest shams, the most hideous hypoc- 
risies spring not out of our own personal problems, but surge 
up from that great, black, festering mass in modern life 
which we call our economic system. There truth is pros- 
tituted in the temple of the Holy Alliance of World Capitalism, 
there humanity is crushed in the great, mad, selfish rush of 
big business, where the only slogans heard are: “Dog eat 
dog!” and “What is there in it for me?” As examples of 
burglary and oppression, labeled “honesty” and “respectability,” 
in our modern life, let us see several very typical cases. In 
my own home town the mill workers were on strike. I per- 
sonally attended their first meeting in an open lot. They 
were like sheep without a shepherd. Everyone bore that 
haggard look that comes from overwork. Many were pale 
and consumptive. The company had just cut their wages ten 
per cent, and they struck in protest. I asked them what their 
wages were: married men with large families, faithful 
workers, were getting then in some cases less than twenty 
dollars a week, a few not much more; some girls were getting 
as low as five dollars a week, many of them below ten. The 
operators claimed they had to cut because of hard times. But 
all of the mill owners were living in luxury, buying new 
houses, new cars, new jewelry; they were prosperous, opulent, — 
on the wages they had stolen from the workers when times 
were good. Their policy was to dodge taxes and keep prices 
high by underproduction when times were bad. Because the 
workers had been faithful in good times they had to suffer in 


174 





THE NEW HONESTY [VII-m] 


bad times. And such thievery and tyranny by insolent “busi- 
ness men” are blessed and sanctified by city and church alike. 

Another example of the brazen dishonesty upon which 
industrial life is reared is afforded by the twenty-fifth anni- 
versary report of the United States Steel Corporation, under 
the direction of that past master of industrial injustice, Judge 
Gary. “A campaign was started,’ says this report, “to abolish 
the twelve-hour day in the steel mills....It met with 
vigorous opposition from many sources, principally from the 
workers themselves.’ A disingenuous lie, of course. “The 
United States Steel Corporation,’ goes on the report, “is not 
an eleemosynary institution. ... All activities for the good 
of the worker have been amply justified for business reasons 
... the first object of any company is to make money for 
its stockholders.” Probably this is the ethic these men learn 
at church. Does it sound like Jesus? In one deliciously 
revealing sentence, the steel report gives the big corporation 
away. Not opportunity, health, leisure, larger freedom for 
the workers—but profit-burglary for stockholders. 

One of the best illustrations of industrial injustice posing 
as honesty is that of four great stores selling articles at a 
cheap price, which in 1925 had a combined profit of over 
fifty million dollars. A report of these stores shows that 
eighty per cent of the workers receive less than twelve dollars 
a week. What do you think Jesus would say of a business 
which paid its stockholders thirty-five per cent of the value 
of the stock in one year while the majority of the employes 
were receiving less than twelve dollars a week? Is it honesty, . 
is it Christian principle? No. It is downright robbery! 

How our dishonest industrial situation works out for the 
masses is shown by the Passaic strike. In October, 1925, the 
small wages of the workers were cut in two ways: ten per: 
cent, and work days to four a week. A strike, which even- 
tually spread to all the neighboring mills until eleven thousand 
souls were out, was organized by a young Harvard graduate. 
The strike was entirely orderly so far as the workers were 
concerned, despite the fact that families were destitute for a 
period of six months. But following one daily conference a 
procession of strikers homeward bound was stopped by the 
police. A crowd gathered. The chief of police ordered the 
cops to charge. On horses and motorcycles they rode into 

175 


[Vil-m] ~ THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


* 


the mass of men and women. Clubs, gas-bombs, and firehose 
were used indiscriminately with the result that many were 
hurt, including women. To suppress the truth about this 
uncalled-for violence the police smashed the cameras of the 
newspapermen. So do “the powers that be” support the rich 
and add to the misery and hopelessness of the children of 
poverty. 

So might we go on ad infinitum; for examples of this one 
great dishonesty lie thick everywhere in our economic sys- 
tem like sands on the seashore. But covering it is a crust 
of false propaganda carried on by newspapers and capitalist- 
controlled sheets. The camouflaging of this gross influence 
in modern life is a marvel of clever deception. Bolshevism, 
ghastly pictures of revolution, weird tales of bewhiskered 
socialists, bloodthirsty proletariats have scared folk so that 
the slightest mention of some new system by which Christian 
justice might be a reality almost sends them out of their 
wits. Speak to the average man who looks at life in the 
average way about the lot of the industrial worker, and, if 
he does not call you a dirty pessimist or a Bolshevik, he will 
put his hand over his mouth, swallow his yawn and walk 
away. It is hard to present the facts of the situation so 
that they will give the average man a chance to do something 
about it. We need new idealists who will dramatize for us 
in telling ways the injustices of modern industrial life. 

Even more unconcerned about the lot of the underdog are 
the state and the church. The church condemns the little 
thief and the state promptly puts him in jail. The church 
praises the big thief and the state sets him on a throne of 
honor. There seems to be a blind and blundering conspiracy 
between church and state for the avowed purpose of strain- 
ing out the gnats and swallowing the camels. Thus banks 
that shoot down poor, depraved, half-witted victims of pov- 
erty are commended, while the bankers themselves grow sleek 
and rich on the purloined profits derived from foreclosed 
mortgages and other clever little underhanded business deals. 
Thus the big trusts in oil and coal and steel and meat hire 
armored cars and gunmen to shoot down offenders, and call 
out the militia to kill strikers, while all the time they plunder 
the public’s pocketbook, and rob their employes. I know of 
a case where a poor tramp, penniless and starving in a small 

176 


% ine 
f 


THE NEW HONESTY [VII-m] 


New England town, was shot in the act of stealing a loaf 
of bread, and died in jail. The man who used his gun with 
such deadly aim in defense of his property happened to be 
one of the town’s “first citizens,’ an individual who had 
grown rich on the ill-gotten gains of wage-slavery. The 
tramp died in disgrace, the rich man went scot-free. ‘Which 
of them twain was more in accord with the will of the 
Father?” The answer is suggested in an old couplet from 
an old song: 


“Why prosecute the man or woman 

Who steals a goose from off the common, 
And let the greater felon loose 

Who steals the common from the goose?” 


It is hard to believe that the average wealthy, corporation 
man is fully conscious of what modern industrialism is doing 
to folks. He is frequently placidly and blissfully unaware 
of the sufferings of the masses. Your typical Mr. Muchmoney 
is an office-bearer in the church, where he probably ushers 
and passes the ‘plate on Sunday. He provides a luxurious 
home for wife and children, has two or three cars, is very 
keen on golf, and is a member of an expensive club, is sur- 
rounded by servants and fawning friends, has been mayor 
once or twice, and is a prominent citizen in the community. 
He leads a fairly decent and regular life. Monday morning 
you see him drive up to his factory or office in a limousine. 
In busy days he sticks pretty closely to work; in summer he 
is usually at the links or the ball park. Practically the only 
contact he has with the lower classes is through the hired men 
and women in his office. Frequently he prevents even this 
by seclusion in a private office. His eyes are focused on his 
own selfish pursuits, the profits of the business, and the 
pleasures of leisure hours; he has no time to consider the 


humanity problems, the slum conditions, which cry to high 


heaven for reform. When these things are called to his 

attention he blithely speaks of the beauties and blessings of 

poverty; he tells of the poor boys who have become great; 

he says that sickness and disease and degradation and squalor 

are due to carelessness, vice, bad management, and drunken- 

ness; and as a sop to conscience he gives a few dollars to 
L7/ 


[VII-m] ‘THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


' 
charity. If he is the proprietor of a huge newspaper, he 
hires some slick editorial writer to pen a pean of praise to 
poverty like that which appeared in the New York Times: 
“Perverted thus as we are in our natures, how unwelcome 
at the door of life is the presence of poverty. ... Yet pov- 
erty is not a curse but a blessing. So if some day Lady 
Poverty stand at the door . . . fling back the creaking hinges 
and let her in. Make room for her gracious presence-in the 
wide guest chambers of your heart.” When our “honest” 
big business man undergoes rough experiences in the profit- 
hunting campaign, he motors about town in a jaunty style with 
an expensive cigar in his mouth, thus lulling the suspicions 
of creditors. When he is jubilantly gathering in the shekels 
he goes afoot in.a shabby suit, talks of “hard times,” so as 
to attract as little attention as possible from the treasurer of 
the local hospital and similar annoying people, such as tax- 
gathering and donation-gathering officials. He also wishes 
to be able to plead poverty when his employes demand fairer 
wages. He worships at the shrine of Industrial Efficiency, 
where the golden text is “More profits, less overhead,” and 
whose patron saint is Henry Ford. To him the words of a 
Garvin are especially soothing: “Karl Marx, the mid-Vic- 
torian Calvin of economics, is dead as a dodo. The practical, 
original Henry Ford, as the symbol of high wages and profit 
sharing, is the real spirit of the morning!” He fails to see 
that neither the Ford scheme nor the ‘Marx socialism nor the 
present industrial tyranny can be a worthy or permanent 
system for an enlightened humanity. It never enters his 
head to bring the dynamic of the spirit of Jesus into the 
factory and the office and the mine. 

Once in a while, in an unguarded moment, a capitalist sees 
the truth and speaks out. “I have resolved,’ said the late 
Cleveland H. Dodge during the war when he was selling 
copper to the government at a big profit, “that not one red 
cent of this blood money shall stick to these fingers!” He 
felt that the dollars he gained from copper sold to make 
bullets to kill men was blood money. But is it not equally 
true that money made from the enslavement and the oppres- 
sion of millions of lives, profits built up on the prostrated 
and destitute bodies of men and women is blood money? The. 
crushed and exhausted millions who feed the modern indus- 

178 , ‘ 





THE NEW HONESTY [VII-m] 


trial wine-press are as truly pouring out their life blood for 
the fattening of rich plutocrats as if their bodies were actual- 
ly devoured in cannibalistic style. In the rayless, sordid, 
horrible, industrial city slum we see, also, the utterly de- 
structive results of an economic system, which is the source, 
as William Dean Howells truly said, “of almost all the sins 
and shames that ever were.” “In the body ofthis death,” 
he confesses, “they fester and corrupt forever.” As long 
as we tolerate a wage system which is unfair, an exploita- 
tion system ‘by which private persons greedily exhaust natural 
resources for personal profit, a ruthless system of com- 
petition by which smaller businesses are put out of com- 
mission—as long as we have the dishonesty which prates of 
honor with one breath and burglarized profits with the next, 
we shall have the conditions which warrant thé statement 
that “modern wage slaves in their tenement hovels are worse 
off than chattel slaves on their quiet farms.” We shall have 
human beings, as Robert Browning says, 


+ 


. born slaves, bred slaves, 
Branded in the blood and bone slaves!” 


And we shall have a country, not the land of the free and 
the home of the brave, but the land of the cheat and the home 
of the slave. Lowell was not telling fairy stories when he 
penned these prophetic lines: 


“Slavery, the earth-born Cyclops, fellest of the giant brood, 

Son of brutish Force and/ Darkness, who have drenched the 
earth with blood, 

Famished in his self-made desert, blinded by our purer day, 

Gropes in yet unblasted regions for his miserable prey; 

Shall we guide his gory fingers where our helpless children 
play?” 


VII 


We hear much these days about crime and the checking 
of it. Make the punishments severe, say some. Cut out the 
maudlin sentimentality, say others. Even the Chief Justice 
deplores the fact that “the sentimentality of many develops 
into an obstructing sympathy for bloody-handed murderers 

179 


[VII-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


who are brought to justice, leading to efforts to prevent the 
execution of sentences.” But in all this silly talk about check- 
ing crime one rarely hears a single clear statement about the 
root reasons for criminality. To try to stop the petty crimes 
of individuals while the hideous social crime of industrial 
slavery lasts is the grossest kind of hypocrisy. It is like trying 
to dam Niagara with a sheet of paper. The origin of ninety 
per cent of crime may be described in three steps: 

I. Society creates the city slum and the wage struggle for 
existence, 

2. A child is born in a dirty hovel of the slum and faces 
the hopeless struggle. 

3. Deformed from birth and despair-stricken by economic 
conditions the child grows to be a criminal. Whose fault? 

We deny human beings moral rights; then demand they be 
morally right. We build society on the backs of crushed hu- 
manity; then tell them to get up. The economic order grinds 
out multitudes morally and mentally and physically exhausted; 
we then condemn. this social grist for being what they are. 
The repulsive mob with its crimes and horrors is not the 
product of itself, but the normal product of that ruthless in- 
dustrial war waged for property at the expense of humanity. 
“From possessions,” said Richard Wagner, “which have be- 


come private property, and which now, strangely enough, are — 


regarded as the very foundation of good order spring all the 
crimes of myth and history!” 

When anyone attempts to point out these facts about in- 
dustrial injustice, which, to a truly honest man, cry to high 
heaven for attention, the safe, satisfied rich begin their call- 
ing names: “Radical! Bolshevik! Pessimist!” They say, 
“Peace, peace, all is well!” And one will be willing to grant 


the statement of Charles Stelzle that “in every human re- | 


lationship standards of practice have been definitely lifted 
higher.” But the fact is that they are nowhere near high 
enough. The real pessimist is the man who thinks no re- 
form is possible because things are as good as they ever can 
be. Where would we be today were it not for the great re- 
formers of the past who laid their martyred lives upon the 
altar of progress? False optimism is not only real pessimism, 


but the most mischievous and cowardly betrayal of human © 


destiny anyone can imagine. For it paralyzes the power and 
180 





‘THE NEW HONESTY [VII-m] 


‘enthusiasm of social amelioration at its very source. The 
spirit of revolt against the hypocritical social crimes of our 
day is not pessimism, but militant optimism, the source of all 
radical reform. Let Ernest Crosby speak to us of its mean- 
ing: 


“Hail, spirit of revolt! Thou spirit of life, 
Child of eternal love—. 
- Love, rebelling against lovelessness—life rebelling against 
death ; 
Rise at last to the full measure of thy birthright, 
Spurn the puny weapons of hate and oppression. 
Fix rather thy calm, burning protesting eyes on all the myriad 
shams of man and they will fade away in thinnest air. 
Gaze upon thy gainsayers until they see and feel the truth 
and love that begat and bore thee. 
Thus and thus only give form and body to the noblest aspira- 
tions. 
And we shall then see done on earth as it is in heaven 
God’s ever-living, growing, ripening will.” 


Vill 


As we contemplate, then, this vast social hypocrisy, whereby 
wolves of selfishness masquerade as honest citizens, covering 
their brutal, arrogant, wholly unashamed sin with the sheep’s 
cloak of public approval, reaping their wealth from the pros- 
trate bodies of brother-men and displaying the offending 
tokens of their iniquity in infuriating luxuries, even at a 
- time when little children die like flies of pestilence and starva- 
tion, and while men tramp the streets, hungry and bitter- 
hearted and tired, looking for work, this conviction grows 
upon us that it is only as the radically honest and intensely 
humane spirit of Jesus Christ permeates the hearts of all 
men shall we arrive at a solution! But in this crisis what is 
his church doing? Precious little! There are prophets who 
take their lives and reputations in their hands and dare to 
condemn wickedness in high places. But the church as a 
whole has shown a marked reluctance to face the facts of 
industrial despotism. This is partly due to a remote and 
nebulous notion as to what Jesus really wants. But the fal- 

181 


[VII-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 

’ 
tering hesitation of the church, in the presence of gross social 
iniquity, in applying to the situation the dynamic of Jesus’ 
gospel, is due not so much to ignorance but to deceitful 
Pharisaism which caresses social sinners to keep the money- 
bags full. 

The disrepute of the church among the laborers, and the 
defection of multitudes of the working people from its folds, 
is due primarily to this prostitution of the truth of Chris- 
tianity by the moneyed groups which wield the controlling 
influence in the institution supposedly founded by a Nazarene 
peasant carpenter, “I was them carried in spirit to the mines,” 
says John Woolman in a passage which penetrates to the 
heart of this hypocrisy, “where poor oppressed people were 
digging rich treasures for those called Christians, and heard 
them blaspheme the name of Christ, at which I was grieved 
for his name to me was precious. I was then informed that 
these heathens were told that those who oppressed them were 
the followers of Christ, and they said among themselves, ‘Tf 
Christ directed them to use us in this sort, then Christ is a_ 
cruel tyrant!” 

But the real Jesus is the best friend the working people 
have. He is conscious of their sufferings—he will find hands 
and hearts to bring hope and release, as Margaret Sangster 
so truly sings: 


“He sees though we make Him unseeing, 
He knows when the factory wheels 

Grind down the life-blood of children; 
When the poor little bond-servant kneels 

In the pang of its frightful abasement ; 
Though all are deaf to its prayer, 

There is coming a dark day of judgment, 
And the Lord of the child will be there.” 


A newer and truer evangelism is calling for servants of 
Jesus, the Lord of justice and humanity. It is the divine 
ardor of a new enthusiasm which seeks to change the sys- 
tem of things and rescue thousands of lives where the old 
evangelism saved one. It is an evangelism inspired by a 
genuine solicitude for the welfare of human beings. It seeks 
to lay the axe at the root of the evil economic tree upon which 

182 


be 


THE NEW HONESTY [VII-m] 


all manner of immoralities grow as natural fruits. Moses’ 
first step in leading the Israelites into the disciplines of the 
New Covenant was the demand upon Pharaoh to free them 
from slavery. Paul’s first clarion call of Christian liberty 
was the deliverance of a whole people from bondage to the 
Jewish law. The Pilgrim’s first move in the adventure for 
the new freedom was to go out from under the yoke of a 
religious despotism. Lincoln’s first step in the development 
of the African Negro was emancipation from chattel slavery. 
The new social evangelism is based on the earnest conviction 
that the spiritual salvation of the individual begins with the 
liberation of the whole people from the curse of economic 
servitude. This is the supreme task of the modern church 
and no pious subterfuge proposing to save individuals in 
miraculous manner or by pious mysticism can take its place. 

This vision, this ardor, this enthusiasm for social justice 
will work out into detail as the spirit of it permeates the 
fabric of all social life. Broadly speaking, prophets can now 
perceive that the solution of the problem lies in such a spir- 


- itualization of individuals and organizations as to make the 


world a place where every soul born into the world will be 
equally secure in the material means and social resources 


- needful for a complete life. Upon this new spiritual plane 


of society natural resources will be considered as the property 
of the whole community to be administered for the wel- | 
fare of all alike. The necessities of life, coal and iron and 
lumber and meat and food, will not be exploited by a few 
for personal profit any more than select individuals bottle and 
sell sunshine and fresh air now. Municipal control of in- 
dustry will prevail, and merit will be rewarded at its true . 
value. In all industrial production the main business will not 
be the article produced, although that will have its impor- 
tance, but the bodily welfare, liberty, and spiritual education 
of men and women. And the crowning goal of the new 
evangelism will be the carrying of the spirit of the Chris- 
tian Cross into the market square, the enthronement of the 
Christian Heart in the commercial world. This is what 
Jesus means by the leaven of the Kingdom of Heaven: the 
influence of his truth, honesty, mercy, and love amidst the 
perplexity and strife of the present world system. His day 
is coming; help it come! 
183 


[VII-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 
IX 


One other battle on the side of sincerity must be fought, 
and that is the struggle to make the Christianity of the 
churches more truly the religion of Jesus. At the decadent 
condition of the churches many people are filled with a deep 
and depressing gloom. Like Joshua they feel that God has 
failed his people and they cry out: “Alas, O Lord Jehovah, 
wherefore hast Thou at all brought this people over the Jor- 
dan, to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites, to cause 
us to perish? O Lord, what shall I say . . . and what wilt 
Thou do for Thy great name?” (Josh. 7:7-9.) But God’s 
answer to Joshua is a good warning in our present plight: 
“Get thee up! the fault is your own! You have sinned; there- 
fore the children of Israel cannot stand before their enemies! 
In obedience you have failed, you have not been loyal to my 
truth, your inconsistencies and hypocrisies have come before 
me, and I promise you no success until these are remedied!” 


One serious matter of insincerity which has crippled the _ 


church everywhere is that of money. Most churches are woe- 
fully weak financially because so-called Christians do not 
take their church financial responsibilities seriously at all. 
Where men do give liberally to the church life, as is the case 
in many aristocratic churches, it is found that an even more 
profound element of dishonesty enters in: men imagine they 
can buy the Christian life, and that when they have. dis- 
charged certain moneyed debts the salvation of the Holy 
Spirit is upon them.. The mere paying of money into the 
coffers of the church is no substitute for a full-orbed, right 
serviceable life, as an incident in the early church bears out: 
“Simon saw that the holy Spirit was imparted through the 
laying on of hands, so he offered them money, saying, ‘Give 


me also this power to communicate the holy Spirit to anyone. 


I place my hands upon.’ But Peter said to him, ‘Go to de- 
struction with your money, for thinking you could buy God’s 
gift with it! You have no share or part in this movement, 
for your heart-is not honest in the sight of God. So repent 
of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord, to see 
if you may not be forgiven for thinking of such a thing. For 
TI see that you are a bitter poison and a bundle of iniquity!” 
(Goodspeed’s Translation, Acts 8:18-23.) 

184 ‘ 


- ) 


| > 


oe 


THE NEW HONESTY [VII-m] 


Not only are the people of the churches guilty of financial 
disloyalty, but they have taken the wonderful religion of 
Jesus with its life-giving power, its naturalness and reality 
and everyday livability, and out of it they have made an 
artificial, unreal, archaic cult of deadly formalism. Within 


the close walls and arid atmosphere of the modern church 


the dynamic energies of the great spirituai Christ have been 
smothered until we have in many cases, instead of a power- 
house for radiant, heroic, soulful adventure, a quiet, digni- 
fied museum of credal and ritual antiquities. No wonder J. 
R. Lowell characterized the restlessness within the church 
in such startling language: “. . a struggle for fresh air, 
in which, if the windows could not be opened, there was 
danger that panes would be broken, though painted with 
images of saints and martyrs. Light, coloured by these rev- 
erend effigies, was none the more respirable for being pic- 
turesque.” 

That the gulf between religion and reality has worked harm 
to the cause of Christianity may be seen in several quarters. 
For example, we hear John Baillie, reporting on the religion 
of the Armies in the War, saying: “Some eighty per cent of 
the prime manhood of Great Britain and America stand in 
little or no living relation to organized Christianity, and be- 
hind their indifference there is a strong and rising tide of 
feeling that religion, as it is presented to them in the Chris- 
tian Church, is out of touch with reality and with the real 
business of life. They do possess faith; faith at least in 
duty and in the rightness of doing the right thing. . . . But 
they do not know how essentially Christian are such faith 
and loyalty, nor do they think of these things as having much 
connection with what is commonly known as religion.” And 
Francis Miller, speaking for the students of America, says 
in words which sound strangely similar: ‘What college men 
need is a faith which sees all the facts, fears no scientific 
discovery, takes into account every natural law and in the face 
of the sternest conclusions which these facts may necessitate, 
can turn to Jesus on the Cross and find in him God actively 
at work redeeming human life. . . . They are hungering for 
greater reality!” Are we going to give it to them? Are we 
going to achieve in our day a religion which at all costs 

185 


[VII-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


eliminates the hypocrisy of theological subterfuge and’ gets 
down to the realities of human need and scientific truth? 

We must make Christianity itself remorselessly and totally 
honest. If we do not do this, we shall be raising up-a genera- 
tion of youth who inevitably will come to think like Nietzsche: 
“T call Christianity the one great curse, the one great intrinsic 
depravity, the one great instinct of revenge, for which ne 
expedient is sufficiently poisonous, secret, subterranean, mean 
—I call it the one immortal blemish of mankind.’ Whether 
Nietzsche rants against Christianity because he has seen its 
perverted counterpart in churches or because he is violently 
opposed to the message of Jesus itself, one finds it hard to 
say. But this at least is sure: the future Christianity will 
be open to just such bitter Nietzschean criticism if the Church 
continues on down the road to superstition which leads to 
Endor. It is the road leading back to old magical beliefs, 
supernatural theologies, dead creeds. That backward road is 
the way to confusion. . 


“Oh, the road to Endor is the oldest road, 
But the craziest road of all! 
Straight it runs to the Witch’s abode, 
As it did in the days of Saul; 
And nothing has changed of the sorrow in store 
For such as go down on the road to Endor!” 


The church needs now as never before a tremendous trust 
in the power of truth. Church leaders must be possessed of 


a dogged veracity, a remorseless fidelity to truth which will 
put to rest the fears of the younger generation that the 


church is primarily a club of dishonest thinkers. Men like 
Dean Inge, Prof. L. P. Jacks, and Dr. Fosdick are contribut- 
ing mightily to the salvation of Christianity through their 
refreshing honesty in religious thinking. “Candour, moral 
courage, intellectual honesty, scrupulous accuracy, chivalrous 
fairness, endless docility to facts, disinterested collaboration, 
unconquerable hopefulness and perseverance, manly renun- 
ciation of popularity and easy honours, . . . these and many 
other cognate qualities,” says Baron von Hugel, “bear upon 
them the impress of God and His Christ.” The more the 
mists of pious credalism disappear, the more real and won- 
186 


- 


aE 


~ 


PUI ESNEWCTLONES TY [VII-m] 


derful and bea ,tiful shines forth the lovely Face of the living 
Christ. The nearer we come to his Truth, the more earnestly 
do we set about the living of it. And the only thing that can 
make Christianity thoroughly honest is for us who are pro- 
fessing Christians to place the Master’s message seriously in 
the center of our living. ‘One of the greatest hours in Chris- 
tian history,’ says Dr. Fosdick, “will have struck when once 
more the religion of Jesus takes the center of the scene!” 


x 


We have seen, in the discussion of this chapter, that Jesus’ 


solution for many of life’s most difficult problems is a pure 
amd unalloyed frankness, a transparent simplicity, a deep 
and searching standard of honesty. In the last analysis, 
however, we must see clearly that the fight for a true life 
is no child’s play. The man who sets out to fight the battle 
of truth must expect hardship, grim opposition, possibly mar- 
tyrdom. Being through and through an honest man makes 
playing safe out of the question. The man who keeps the bark 
of his life steered straight according to the polestar of the 
ideal must often beat right into the teeth of the wind, right 
through the fiercest storms. History’s roll-call of heroic ideal- 
ists is nothing but a list of martyrs who died in disgrace 
rather than be found false. Such was Woodrow Wilson: 


“Condemn him if you will! “His is the place 
Of honor in our land, due every man 

Whose soul has glimpsed ideals and whose heart 
Has fought to prove them true! 

He was lone out-post for that world-old hope 
Humanity can never quite release; 

He gave his heart, his life, his soul, to hold 
Our eyes upon the gleam of lasting peace. 

If he was right (God knows he may have been!) 
Come, bring heart-laurel for his sleeping head! 

If he was wrong, still true his heart and brave 
His fight; his place is with our soldier dead.” 


When we look, however, for a pure example of perfect 
sincerity, for one who lived for truth, who made the will 
187 


[VII-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


of God his meat and drink, we pass by the Napoleons,’ the 
_ Alexanders, the mighty captains of earth to a humble Gali- 
lean. Here was a true life, like a perfect star, shining with 
glorious constancy . . . and still shining! The poor he loved, 
but with no patronizing air of superiority. The heavy doors 
of base prejudice and gross unbelief were closed against him, 
but with infinite patience he beat his bruised and bleeding 
knuckles upon them until all marveled at his loyalty. He 
_ smote with all the acid of his keen tongue the wily hypo- 
crite who sheltered under his robe of sanctimonious piety 
a false and selfish heart. He tore from life’s shams the mask 
of pretense and showed the world the hidden shame and all 
deceit. He went down to the outcasts and distressed of life, 
and redeemed them with a simple and wonderful faith. In 
his soul there throbbed a divine melody of God’s spirit which 
was transmitted to other hearts until the same holy vibra- 
tions of faith and hope and love were set going there. He 
followed his light, never faltering in suffering, in doubt or in 
death! 

_ We have the chance to be as true as Jesus was, to achieve 
the same magnificent freedom he achieved. But we manacle 
ourselves with falsehood. We shackle ourselves. with dis- 
honesty and insincerity. We shrink from the tremendous 
demands of facing the whole truth. Too many of us desert 
the Christ, the Captain of Truth, to become prisoners in the 
land of sham! To seek truth is to find freedom. To achieve 
trueness is the best contribution we make to life: true to our 
fellowmen, that is the best citizenship; true to God, that is — 
the best religion; true to the best in ourselves, that is the 
best manhood or womanhood! 


“Who are the free? 
They who have scorned the tyrant and his rod, 
And bowed in worship unto none but God; 
They who have made the conqueror’s glory dim, — 
Unchained in soul, though manacled in limb, 
Unwarped by prejudice, unawed by wrong, 
Friend to the weak and fearless to the strong; 
They who would change not with the changing hour, 
The selfsame men in peril and in power, 

188 





Yer 


ial al tan et at 





THE NEW HONESTY [VIL-q] 


True to the law of right, as warmly prone 
To grant another’s as maintain their own, 
Foes of dishonesty, wheresoe’er it be, 

These are the proudly free!” 


O God, our Father, Source of Truth and Light, forgive, we 
pray Thee, the conspiracy of unworthy living which confuses 
our complex world. Deliver us from all blood-guiltiness, all 
trickery and dishonesty and deceit, by which we betray our 
brother-man. Help us, we beseech Thee, to achieve the beauty 
of a true life. -Create in us a clean heart, O God! And may 
the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts 
and the deeds of our days be always acceptable in Thy sight, 
O Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer, Amen. 


LIFE QUESTIONS 


1. “God is everywhere and all words are uttered in his 
presence; therefore truth is of universal obligation.” (Bishop 
Gore.) In the light of this fact, give your opinion of swearing 
on oath, of profanity, of perjury. 

2. “To me it seems that the history of civilization is made 


up of a mass of repetitions of one never-ending truth: The 


intellect discovers error and treasures it; the eye discovers 
all the truth that later ages will endorse.’ (Henshaw Ward.) 
Is this statement true? What does it suggest as to the way 


we arrive at reality? 


3. What do you consider the one outstanding insincerity 
in modern life? 

4. “Why is it that a concern which does not render service 
enough to make profits is permitted to use. our ‘labor of 
which we have not too great a supply, or our capital, which 


is always difficult to get?” (Owen D. Young.) 


Notice carefully this question of a great corporation leader. 
Can you discover any fallacious assumptions behind it? 

Is making profits the measure of service? What does the 
speaking of capital and labor in terms of use and_ supply 
suggest as to the attitude of big business toward the labor- 
ing man? Is it Christian to think of the masses as things 
to be used, a supply to be dipped out like water or dug up 
like dirt? 

: 189 


[VII-q] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


s. “It is organized industry that has brought abont the 


present unprecedented development in this country... .” 


(Andrew W. Mellon.) 

Analyze the truth or falsity of this statement by asking 
yourself these questions: What element in the industrial ma- 
chine is indispensable in all production? Is this boasting of 
big industrial activity based on benefits to all the people or 
a privileged few? Can you think of anything that would be 
better for a country than “unprecedented industrial develop- 
ment”? 

6. “It is our duty to fight against this religion of imperial- 
istic civilization. Since the invasion of Christianity in China 
thousands of men-of-war and guns have followed on the 
heels of the missionaries who come to us clad in black gowns 
and carrying banners of evangelistic volunteers. Many ports 
have been yielded, concessions have been granted and mil- 
lions of dollars of indemnity have been paid.” (Chinese Anti- 
Christian Poster.) 

What is the most serious handicap Christianity has? 

7. “It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be 
mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in 
believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to be- 
lieve what he does not believe.” (Thomas Paine.) ; 

Can a man be honest with himself if he publicly professes 
something which he does not believe? if he believes something 
which he does_not live? 

8. “For many hereditary Christians certain types of sins 
are practically impossible . . . by an inhibition which is more 
a matter of etiquette and taste than of conscience. But at 
the same time you know that the most appalling sins of the 
disposition—jealousy, malicious gossip, resentment at the prec- 
edence of another, irreverence, misconstruction of motives, 
parochialism, the itch for human recognition, reprehensible 
ignorance, pride—that sins like these are rampant in our 
church life and almost unchecked.” (Johnston Ross.) 

Has the church been honestly and earnestly trying to know 
God’s will and to do it? 

9. “Is corn to grow by method, and character by caprice? 
If we cannot calculate to a certainty that the forces of re- 
ligion will do their work, then is religion vain. And if we 
cannot express the law of these forces in simple words, then 


190 





il ad i i i tk 


THE NEW HONESTY [VII-q] 


is Christianity not the world’s religion, but the world’s conun- 
drum!” (Henry Drummond.) 

Has Christianity proved itself a reliable religion in meet- 
ing and solving the world’s problems? 

10. Did Jesus ever play safe? Did he ever play politics? 
Did he ever trim the truth to suit the members of the syna- 
gogue? Did he ever hedge and dodge issues to satisfy the 
leading men of Jerusalem, the church and its rich men? 
What is your definition of a martyr? 


IOI 


CHAPTER VIII 


Conquest of Evil in the 
New Day 


DAILY READINGS 


The Great War was an ulcer on the body politic, a reveal- 
ing symptom of an underlying disease. The blood of the 
nations was poisoned with the old virus of a faith in force. 
The catastrophe was the natural result of an unhealthy re- 
liance upon physical power, invented in laboratories, produced 
in munition factories, stored in arsenals, and resident in ar- 
mies. A combination of scientific discovery, military effi- 
ciency, and political ambition, with the “reeking tube and 
iron shard” philosophy, conspired to leave Europe demolished 
and the world shaken. Since the war Fascism in Italy, Sov- 
ietism in Russia, dictatorships in Spain, Poland, Greece, and 
Turkey seem to suggest that the nations did not learn any 
lesson concerning the futility of force. While international 
friendship seems to be increasing, the nations never were 
more frankly putting their trust in the rule of the iron arm. 
Under these conditions is human government safe? 

In the daily readings and discussion of this chapter we 
shall study the safest way, in the long run, for nations as well 
as individuals. Our thesis might be put in the five words of 
John Bright: “Force is not a remedy!” Or, better yet, in the 
words of an earlier prophet: “Not by might, nor by power, 
but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” (Zech. 4: 6:) 


Eighth Week, First Day 


Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into 


his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with 
the sword.—Matt. 26: 52. ; 
192 





: 
‘ 
1 
4 
q 





CONQUEST OF EVIL IN THE NEW DAY [VIII-2] 


Strange, isn’t it, that these words have been known for 
nineteen centuries,~ yet the principle enshrined scarcely ap- 
plied? Nation after nation, group after group, however, has 
taken the sword and perished by it. Even Christians have 
backed their ambitions with the instruments of brute force 
only to find that the very stars in their courses fight against 


- him who tries to overthrow by physical might. For a long 


time we have been praising our theological Christ and dis- 
obeying our teaching Christ. And here is one of his teach- 
ings which the modern world needs tremendously to learn: 
Violence is self-destructive; he that lifts the sword shall 
perish by it! 

Why should this be true? One might as well ask why gravi- 
tation should be true. It is the way our world is constructed. 
It is a God-ordained law that when a man employs force 
to destroy another he sets going a series of events which 
may eventually destroy him. In the long run it always works 
out that when a man sows violence a man reaps violence. But 
the employment of physical violence is never justifiable, not 
only because it destroys both violator and violated, but also 
because it is futile to overcome evil or to accomplish any 
good intention. 

The complete elimination of the necessity for arms was 
Jesus’ method. It is impossible to imagine him, under any 
conditions, taking a heavy sword and cutting off a man’s 
head. An extract from Raymond’s travels in the Pyrenees 


reflects the spirit of the Master: “These smugglers are 
familiarized at all times with peril, and would be a subject 
of dread to most travelers. . . . As for myself, alone and 


unarmed, 1 have met them without anxiety, and have ac- 
companied them without fear. Armed I should have been © 
their enemy, unarmed they have respected me. . . . I have 
long since laid aside all menacing apparatus whatever. The 
man of peace among mankind has a much more sacred de- 
fence—his character!” 


Eighth Week, Second Day 


“When Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his 
wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever. And he touched her 
hand and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered 
unto them.—Matt. 8: 14-15. 

193 


[VIll-3} .° THE MASTER'S MESSAGE 


With a few exquisite strokes the writer here gives us a 
little window through which we can see one of the’ most 
beautiful characteristics of the Master’s character—his gentle- 
ness, With infinite tenderness he ministers to the mother of 
Peter’s wife and the vibrant touch of that gentle hand so re- 
vives her spirit that she can rise and serve the guests. ‘The 
first true gentleman that ever breathed” sang a poet about 
him. And if there was ever a man supremely gentle, it was 
he. He was a gentle man, but he was not a weak man. The 
self-control of quiet patience 1s a greater power than the 
brutal might which gives blow for blow. More strength is 
required to keep. the calm way of love than to express the 
impulse of unguarded hatefulness. The sensitive soul of 
Jesus shrank instinctively from lifting the fist to give in- 
jury. He shunned with abhorrence the coarse, crude, re- 
vengeful spirit of the hardened man of the world. _He was 
constantly on his guard lest he be guilty of giving pain. Here 
- was an extremist, if you will, an extremist in the art of gentle- 
NESS. 

Concerning no virtue is the New Testament more unani- 
mous. The servant of the Lord must be gentle (II Tim. 
2:24); the characterististic of the apostles is that they are as 
gentle as a nurse (I Thess. 2:7); gentleness is declared to 
be one of the chief fruits of spirituality (Gal. 5:22); gentle 
meekness is the required attitude toward all men (Titus_3:2) ; 
and violent men are exhorted to turn from their evil in the 
very name of the gentleness of the Christ (II Cor. 10:1). 


“Oh! let the ungentle spirit learn from hence, 

A small unkindness is a great offence. 

Large bounties to restore we ‘wish in vain, 

But all may shun the guilt of giving pain! 

So trifles make the sum of human things,’ 

And half our misery from this weakness springs: 
We learn not life’s best gifts of help and strength 
Proceed from peaceful gentleness at length!” 


Eighth Week, Third Day 


This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as 
your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of 
this bread shall live forever. These things said he in the 

194 


~ 





a 


. 
* 








CONQUEST OF EVIL IN THE NEW DAY [VIII-3] 


synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. Many therefore of 
his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard 
saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself 
that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth 
this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man 
ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that 
quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I 
speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there 
are some of you that believe not. . From that time many 
of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.— 
John 6: 58-66. 


The opposing powers of the world are not personalities 
but thought values; therefore the warfare is located in the’ 
realm of the mind and spirit. The real struggle is a spiritual 
one: low ideals vs. high ideals, evil powers vs. noble powers. 
The powers that move, control, and determine the world are 
primarily subjective. Matter is passive; mind is active. Mat- 
ter is ruled and flesh is shaped by the sovereign spirit. Paul 
described this fact when he said: “We wrestle not against 
flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, 
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against 
spiritual wickedness in high places!” (Eph. 6:12.) And Jesus 
put his finger on the real dynamic of life when he said: “The 
flesh profiteth nothing; these words of truth which I speak 
to you, they are spirit and they are life!” Not strong right 
arms, nor bullets, nor knives, nor clubs, nor votes, nor mighty 
organizations, nor anything else on earth but these noble 
ideals of justice and truth and love, these are the leaven 
which will undermine and topple every evil kingdom to set 


up the sway of the righteousness of the one true God! 


Some of Christ's followers had no faith in this kind of 
thing. They did not believe in anything but material forces; 
they were not thoroughly spiritual, therefore they turned 
and walked no more with the Master (just exactly what many 
do today). At last he hung dying on a cross and the last 
thing his eyes saw was the great, foul, reeking city of Jeru- 
salem, emblematic of the sordidness of all the Roman Empire. 
When he had walked with them, they pleaded with him to 
organize an army and strike the iniquitous social order and 
the oppressive system of organized slavery. Because he would 
not work with the point of the sword, they turned and left 
195 


[VIII-4] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


him. But he smiled, and planted in the minds of a few 
fishermen his flaming ideals of justice. Peacefully he totiched 
the hearts of a few peasants with a glowing and wondrous 
love. Quietly he imparted to the souls of his friends mighty 
truths. Then nothing seemed to happen, until these ideals began 
to work from heart to heart and slowly but surely through 
the centuries these things have transformed the structure of 
the world. Truly the ways of the flesh profit nothing, but 
it is the spirit which quickeneth powerfully. All great seers 
have seen this, and W. L. Garrison has nobly repeated the 
method of Jesus in modern words: “I believe in the spirit 
of peace, and in sole and absolute reliance on truth and the 
application of it to the hearts and consciences of people. I 
do not believe that the weapons of liberty ever have been, 
or can be, the weapons of despotism. The sword, the re- 
volver, the cannon, the bomb-shell are weapons to which ty- 
rants cling and they are not the weapons for me as a friend 
of liberty!” 


Kighth Week, Fourth Day 


But take heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up 
to councils; and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten: and 
ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, 
for a testimony against them. And the gospel must first be 
published among all nations. But when they shail lead 
you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what 
ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever 
shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not 
ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost. Now the brother shall 


betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and © 


children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause 
them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men 
for my name’s sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, 
the same shall be saved.—Mark 13: 9-13. 


Jesus promises that the path of the patient Christian will 


not be safe in the worldly sense at all. He prophesies in the 


following of truth a steep cliff all stony with terrible tests and 
hardships. Delivered up to savage councils, brutally beaten 
in misunderstanding churches, dragged before austere rulers 


and cruel kings—these are the tests. It is as the holy spirit — 
of patient endurance speaks through his saints under such 


196 








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CONQUEST OF EVIL IN THE NEW DAY [VIII-5] 


circumstances that Christ’s gospel of love will be testified to. 
We bear witness by suffering joyfully for his name’s sake, 
by enduring unto the end. 

A little insight will show us that every unreasonable de- 
mand is a stepping stone to greatness! Every excessive and 
unnatural outrage against us borne patiently and cheerfully 
and forgivingly so much exalts our own characters. Like 
the martyrs of the ages we can make golden opportunities 


out of monstrous inhumanities! For a brother to suffer be- 


trayal by his own brother, for a father to suffer injury at 
the hands of his own son, for a parent to suffer death at the 
hands of one’s own child, seems almost too much to bear. 
But even here the unresisting submission of a disciple of the 
meek King will win the crown. Not safe always, in the 
physical sense, but saved in the spiritual sense will they be 


who suffer unto to the end to gain the quiet victory of re- 


proachless courage. Henry Taylor’s poem perfectly describes 
the spirit of the hero of non-resistance: 


“What makes a hero?—an heroic mind 
Expressed in action, in endurance proved. 

And if there be preeminence of right, 

Derived through pain well suffered, to the height 
Of rank heroic, ’tis to bear unmoved 
Not toil, not risk, not rage of sea or wind, 

Not the brute fury of barbarians blind, 

But worse—ingratitude and poisonous darts, 
~Launched by the people he had served and loved: 
This, with a free, unclouded spirit pure, 

This, in the strength of silence to endure, 
_A dignity to noble deeds imparts, 
Beyond_the gauds and trappings of renown. 
This is the hero’s compliment and crown; 
This missed, one struggle had been wanting still— 
One glorious triumph of the heroic will, 
_ One self-approval in his heart of hearts!” 


Eighth Week, Fifth Day 
But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding 


cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from 
the field, Go and sit down to meat? and will not rather say 


197 


[VIII-5] “THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird 
thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and 
afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that 
servant because he did the things that were commanded 
him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done 
all those things which are commanded you, say, We are 
unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our 
duty to do.—Luke 17: 7-10. . 


A noble martyred nurse of the World War, Edith Cavell, 
gave us an immortal line of truth when she said: “I see 
now that patriotism is not enough, I must die without hatred 
toward anyone!” Anyone who aims at the heights of life 
will soon come to see that duty is not enough, that it is only 
as we serve “over and beyond the line of the duty” that we 
win the service cross of life. In our parable for today we 
read of a servant who did his duty. He ploughed the field, 
fed the cattle, prepared supper for his master and probably 
cleared the table off and washed and dried the dishes. But 


at the close of the parable he is spoken of as an unprofitable 


servant, because he had done his duty and no more. 

The profitable servant is the man who does more than his 
duty. He never shrinks from a burden laid upon him, but 
with yielding spirit and meek submission he will do twice or 
thrice what anyone expects of him. He dves double duty on 


every task because he sees it as another opporunity in God’s’ 


Providence for deeper and deeper inward joy. Like Nanak, 
the sixteenth century Hindu, he says: “If people ill-use me 


and take advantage of me, I will still bear it all meekly!” His 


is the spirit of the slaves of the south emerging from the 
burdens and duress of slavery days patient and humble, and 
untainted by bitterness. In this yielding, second-mile spirit, 
which fights not against force but submits, surrenders, labors 
beyond what is to be expected, there is something eminently 
and uniquely Christian. Are we unprofitable servants who 
have done our duty and no more, or are we on the double- 
duty honor roll? 


“Yield a little to a brother! 
Sometimes yielding is a grace; 
If it smooths life for another, 
Yield a point with smiling face. 
198 


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CONQUEST OF EVIL IN THE NEW DAY [VIII-6] 


“Yield your way—if it be better, 
Prove it by the yielding test; 

It will leave someone your debtor 
When he finds your way is best. 


“Yield your comfort to some other 

Whom but few have thought to please— 
Find your comfort in the brother 

Whose sad load you help to ease.” 


Eighth Week, Sixth Day 


When they therefore were come together, they asked of 
him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the 
kingdom of Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for 
you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father 
hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, 
after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall 
be witnesses unto me both in’ Jerusalem, and in all Judea, 
and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth — 
Acts 1: 6-8. 


The disciples were impatient. They could not wait. They 
were wondering if God was going to do His part and they 
were forgetting their own part. Besides, they were anxious 
to have the new kingdom set up as soon as possible so they 
might have lucrative and comfortable positions. But Jesus 
corrected their impatient spirit. “Trust in God and do your 
own part,” he advised. “Be witnesses of the holy spirit’s 


“power in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts 


ot the earth, and through you the Father will work His 
will in His own good time!” 

One of the main reasons why we use brute force to accom- 
plish our desires is that we do not trust God enough. We 
would need no mortal defense, no overt violence if we trusted 
completely in him. And this trust is no blind belief in an 


absentee God. It is a wise, discriminating confidence that 


the supreme secret of the universe ts the power and pre- 
dominancy of Spirit. It is a belief that love in the long run 
works better than anything else. It is an assurance that truth 
is ultimately triumphant, that the scales of justice are in- 
1990 


{VIII-7] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


evitably righted by the strong right arm of God. Secure is 
he alone that trusteth in the power of the heavenly spirit! 


“O clothe us with thy heavenly armour, Lord, 
Thy trusty shield, Thy sword of love divine; 
Our inspiration be Thy constant word; 
We ask no victories that are not Thine: 
Give or ‘withhold, let pain or pleasure be, 
Enough to know that we are serving Thee!” 


Eighth Week, Seventh Day 


And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, 
-he answered nothing. Then said Pilate unto him, Hearest 
thou not how many things they witness against thee? And 
he answered him never a word.—Matt. 27: 12-14. 

_ And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and 
to buffet him, and to say unto him, Prophesy: and the serv- 
ants did strike him with the palms of their hands.—Mark 
14: 65. 

And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put 
it on his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed 
the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King 
of the Jews. And they spit upon him, and took the reed, 
and smote him on the head. And after they had mocked 
him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own 
raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.—Matt. 


273 29-31. 


The meek, unresisting, uncomplaining fortitude with which 
Jesus faced the cruelties of the trial and crucifixion are the 
surest signs of his greatness. Perhaps the best name we 
‘can think up for him is the Hefo of Longsuffering. Yet 
‘how wondrously strong his meekness appears now beside the 
brutalities of his oppressors. While there was but the con- 
fusion of hatred and the tempest of anger in the hearts of 
his enemies, through it all in his great soul was the quiet 
‘peace and profound calm of the heart of a little child. You 
may talk of armies, money, horses, cities, but you will name 
nothing so strong, so enduring, so powerful as this noble for- 


titude of the Master. They spat on him and struck him, they 


buffetted and bruised him, they mocked and scourged him, 
‘but through it all he never gave one sign of reproach or re- 4 
‘200 


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CONQUEST OF EVIL IN THE NEW DAY [VIII-m] 


sistance—not one word did he utter in protest, “He answered 
nothing!” There is a beautiful negro spiritual which tells 
the story in striking lines: “They crucified my Lord, they 
crowned his head with thorns, they nailed him to a tree, 
but he never said a mumbalin’ word!” 

When Paul speaks of sharing his sufferings (Phil. 3:10), 
and when Peter speaks of witnessing his sufferings (1 Peter. 
5:1), what do they mean? Not some mystical appropriation 
of virtue through the passion of the Savior but a real and 
practical part in the purposes which prompted his patient 
submission and fidelity. In the ordeal through which he 
passed he was simply teaching the generations to come the 
nobility and power of uncomplaining patience. He was giving 
himself as an example of the way goodness must triumph. 
The future of our world may depend upon the number of 
men and women who see this and understand it and suffer 
ignominy as he did for the great cause of truth in the world! 


““VYe tired old olive trees, rigid, as if in agony, 
Distorted and so greyly wrinkled, why?’ 

‘Save for ourselves, He was alone in His Gethsemane, 
We were His comrades in the strife and victory!” 


MEDITATION ON THE MASTER’S THOUGHT 


Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, 
and a tooth for a tooth: but I say unto you, That ye resist 
not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, 
turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee 
at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke 
also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go 
with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him 
that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.—Matt. 
5: 38-42. 

{ 
- Here again we find the noble mind of Jesus penetrating 
through the shallow shams of the orthodox standards of the 
day, revealing their baseness and inadequacy, and setting up 
new and lofty ideals of the greatest generosity and most 
lofty requirements. A blow in the face was a common form 
of insult in first-century Palestine. Jesus says to take it 

201 . 


{VIII-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE ! 


‘peacefully, yes—and turn the other side of your face for 


another blow if your enemy wishes to give it! The personal 


injury of such a blow was usually not great but it was con- — 


sidered very humiliating. Even a slave, says Seneca, would 
rather be scourged than to suffer the insulting buffet in the 
face. A creditor according to law had a right to take a 
‘debtor’s coat but not his cloak. Keep nothing that some one 
else wants, says Jesus; give your enemy your cloak too. 
Throughout the Roman Provinces there was a system of 


compelled service, by which any Roman soldier had the right 


to commandeer to bear his burden both beasts and men whom 
he might meet on the road. The proud Jews bitterly re- 
sented the enforcement of this system, and rebelled against 
it at every opportunity. But there was no petty spirit of 
grudging resentment in the heart of Jesus: When service 


is forced upon you, no matter by whom, respond cheerfully — 


and generously; give “good measure, pressed down, shaken 
together, and running over” (Luke 6:38); do twice as much 
as any one could possibly expect. To insulters, extortioners, 


tyrants, beggars, and borrowers one uniform, yielding re- 


sponse was to be given; the Christian’s conduct was to be 


characterized always, not by pride and thought of self, but 


by undefending meekness and thought only of others. 


But these amazing ideals are rejected by our modern world. — 


Wordly-wise men laugh them out of court, and pretending 
Christians explain them away with plausible logic. Like 
Augustine, who was so steeped in the Roman theory of auto- 
cratic power that he was poles asunder from the meek simplic- 
ity of the Christ, we of today, who wish to dodge the plain 
meaning of Jesus’ words, still use fourth-century reasoning: 
“These precepts pertain more to the preparation of the heart 
within than to the work without. . . . Who would suffer 


aught to be taken away from himself by an enemy, or would — 


not wish to requite their mischief to the spoilers of a Roman 


province by the right of war?” A typical modern author — 
gasps at the very thought of applying ideals which might | 
abolish the magistrate’s office and the soldier’s profession. — 


To deprive a nation or an individual of their proper legal 
redress seems to him the most awful situation imaginable! 
When will we be honest enough to see with Saint Francis 
202 





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CONQUEST OF EVIL IN THE NEW DAY [VIII-m] 


and George Fox and Leo Tolstoy and Bill Simpson that com- 
plete and absolute non-resistance is the very essence of the 
religion of Jesus? If Jesus did not mean these plain words 
to be taken literally, directly, frankly, the way he spoke them, 
then Christianity is a hodgepodge conundrum, for every 
deed of Jesus’ life was an application of the teaching of this 
passage! There are, of course, times when the Master does 
use figurative language, when what he says cannot possibly 
be applied in our lives literally. But there are two tests 
which will help us to know when he is speaking literally or 


not: first, did he consistently live the teaching literally in his 


own experience, and second, is the living of this passage liter- 
ally in accord with the will and character of God? In the 
case of our present passage, the answer to these test ques- 
tions is in the affirmative unquestionably. Jesus rejected the 
theory of private ownership, counted nothing as his to hold 
back, and went out into the world as a simple servant, a lowly 
minister of all who commanded his assistance or his aid. That 
is the root-principle of this passage: God is the only owner. 
Not only the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof, but 
man and all his works have come from God, belong to him, 
and some day will go back to him. Yielding submission of 
anything we are or have is therefore not unreasonable but 
perfectly natural. By the very nature of life we ought to be 
willing to surrender body and all property, time and energy 
and all personal ability to God’s children whenever they com- 
mand it. In his béautiful poem, “Where is the real Non- 
resistant?” Vachel Lindsay gives us the spirit which ought 
to be the outstanding virtue of every Christian on earth: 


“Who can surrender to Christ, dividing his best with the 

stranger, 

_ Giving to each what he asks, braving the uttermost danger, 
All for the enemy man? Who can surrender till death 
His words and his works, his house and his lands, 

His eyes and his heart and his breath? 


“Who can surrender to Christ? Many have yearned toward 

it daily, 

Yet they surrender to passion, wildly or grimly or gaily; 
203 


[VIII-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


Yet they surrender to pride, counting her precious and 
queenly ; ’ 

Yet they surrender to knowledge, preening their feathers 
serenely. 


“Who can surrender to Christ? Where is the man so trans- 
cendent, 

So heated with love of his kind, so filled with spirit re- 
splendent 

That all the hours of his day his song is thrilling and tender, 

And all of his thoughts to our white cause of peace 

Surrender, surrender, surrender ?” 


II 


One day I heard two lads talking. One said: “Do you 
remember that Big War?” 

“Yep,” replied the other, “that was a good war. I like big 
ones like that.” ‘ 


“Huh!” came the answer, “you wouldn’t like it if ya’ got. 


killed. There was my uncle—he got killed!” 

“Did he, how?” 

“Well, ya see, he was bringin’ German prisoners in and 
one of ’em pulled a knife and stabbed him.” 

“What did they do to the German?” 

“Oh, he got his—they threw him under a locomotive!” 

There is no telling if the story is accurate. It is certain, 
however, that incidents like it occurred during the War. 
What was the Christian thing for the German to do? To go 
the second mile of submission; instead he pulled a murderous 
knife! What was the Christian thing, then, for the Americans 
to do? To go the second mile of forgiveness; instead they 
practiced the murderous spirit of revenge. War is full of 
just such cruel examples of the old law: An eye for an eye, 
and a tooth for a tooth. It has always been so. Go back 
to the time when pious preachers spoke of General Amherst 
as “that renowned general, worthy of the most honorable of 
titles, ‘the Christian hero’,” and then learn the truth about 
Amherst by reading a few lines from one of his letters 


where he speaks of the Indians with great contempt: “You 
will do well to inoculate the Indians with smallpox by means 
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CONQUEST OF EVIL IN THE NEW DAY [VIII-m] 


of blankets, as well as to try every other method that can 
serve to extirpate this execrable race.” 

Not only in wars, ancient, medieval and modern, however, 
do we find the hateful, retaliative spirit. Another humble 
recollection from real life will give us reality in this matter: 
another lad overheard saying something like this: “Just let. 
him touch me. I'll give him (showing his muscle) some- 
thing he won’t forget in a hurry!” Right down through so- 
ciety today that spirit 1s everywhere. In most of us the 
animal is still largely dominant. Illustrations are legion here. 
A newspaper article tells of one man who spent his whole 
life in one unrelenting purpose, that of getting revenge. An 
article in a current, capitalistic journal urges a return to the 
cruelest kind of prison conditions and wholesale execution 
of criminals. Another suggests arming all the army reserve 
officers with revolvers to hunt them down. An austere judge — 
sentences a youth less than twenty to life-imprisonment for 
burglary. One clergyman says of the bandits: ‘String ’em 
up where you catch ’em!” and another says of the socialists: 
“Shoot ’em down like dogs!” Imagine Christians praying 
in church “Father, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive 
them that trespass against us!” and then going out to wreak 
vicious and unChristian revenge at every chance they get. 
Imagine Christians coming into the presence of a Lord who 
prayed, dying, from a cross “Father, forgive them for they 
know not what they do!” and then going forth with any such 
principle as this: “If they slap you, slap them back twice 
as hard. Be proud, and if any one injures you, get even with 
him double!” No such Christianity will ever save the .world. 


Indeed, such barbarous slap-back, tit-for-tat behavior, when. 


carried to its logical conclusion, will make of society a dog 
kennel full of snapping, barking, back-biting human bulldogs. 
An anonymous writer of the sixteenth century truly dis- 
criminates between the baser and nobler elements in human 
society: 


“Like as the gentle heart itself bewrays 
In doing gentle deeds with frank delight, 
Even so the baser mind itself displays 
In cankered malice and revengeful spite.” 
205 


[VIII-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE — 


Does the policy of prideful retaliation get anybody any- 
where? As a matter of fact it is the most disappointing 
process one can imagine, for never yet has any victory been 
won by revenge. Never yet has anything worth while been 
achieved by retaliative punishment. The patience that leaves 


punishment to God—the patience that leaves readjustments — 


to the inevitable, automatic processes of the universal law 
which is above and beyond man’s control—that is the spirit 
that always, always wins. Aisop was a wise old owl, and 
he has told no more telling tale than the one of the oak and 
the reed. A furious storm had uprooted the oak and left it 
thrown across a stream. “I wonder how you,” says the oak 
to the reed, “so light and so weak, are not entirely crushed 
by these tempests.” “You fight and contend with the wind,” 
replied the reed, “and so you are destroyed; while we, bend- 
ing with the least breath of air, remain unbroken,” That 
Washington reporter, who, beaten over the head with a 
congressman’s crutch, offered no vengeful blow in return but 
kept his temper in calm restraint, was, by reason of his 


humility, the victor. That friend of mine, who, attacked by 


a burglar in the streets of Cleveland late at night, genially 
and meekly offered the bandit watch and money and friend- 
ship, had the joy of seeing his meekness rewarded by the 
reformation of that same midnight pickpocket. Even Musso- 
lini wins our admiration, dictator and autocrat as he is, when 
he says, after being shot through the nose by an assassin: 
“T want no reprisals. It is my will!’ Sir James M. Barrie 
has said many good things, but none better than this: “Life,” 
he said in his beautiful story, “The Little Minister,” “life 
is one long lesson in humility!” 


ITI 


Why is it that we continually learn that humility is the 
best? Why does the patience of non-resistance work better 
than the violent force of anger? There is a perfectly good 
reason—spiritual law. Two evils never make a good—two 
wrongs never make a right. But good always prevails over 
evil, like the acorn rising through weeds and briars to become 
king of the forest. Good always conquers evil, like the sun 

206 


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CONQUEST OF EVIL IN THE NEW DAY [VIII-m] 


which dispels the mists. The bad perishes before the in- 
fluence of the pure, the true, the loving, as 


“Discords, quenched by meeting harmonies, 
Die in the large and charitable air.” 


Kindness is irresistible, if only there be enough of it. Good- 
ness is unimpeachable, if there be but true faith behind it. 
No brutalisms can overthrow the man who abides in the 
panoply of prayer. No enemy can conquer the man who 
loves him as a friend. Can man bayonet brotherliness? Can 


man bombard love? Shooting at the stars to stop them from 


shining is no less effectual than the attempt to conquer the 
prayerful, faithful, loving heart with force. One nation some 
day is going to realize this, and giving up all arms, will put 
its trust solely in patience and love. It will commit itself to 
the higher forces, trusting that good will prevail. When a 
nation really makes this experiment a new stage of progress 


+ will open up for the human race. And what if an under- 


developed nation does then take advantage of that nation’s 


good-will! Are not J. Brierley’s words a prophecy of the 


result: “If the faith-people suffered for a time the extremi- 
ties of violence, could that experience be other than a Calvary 
out of which a world’s redemption would flow? Could we pity 
the sufferers? Would not theirs be the greatest place in his- 
tory?” There is only one safe and permanent and rational 
way for truth and goodness to triumph and that is not by the 
power of brute force but by the marvelous overcoming power 
of good-will. Edwin Arnold saw it: 


“T think that good must come of good, and ill of evil— 
Surely unto all in every place or time, seeing sweet fruit 
Groweth from wholesome roots, or bitter things 
From poison stocks: yea, seeing, too, how spite 
Breeds hate—and kindness friends—or patience peace!” 


In unmistakable accents the New Testament has been saying 
the same thing! “Recompense to no man evil for evil.” 
(Rom. 12:17.) “Follow after faith, love, patience, meek- 
ness.” (1 Tim. 6:11.) “See that no man render evil for 
evil.” (1 Thess. 5:15.) “Provide things honest in the sight 

207 


[VIII-m] THE MASTER'S MESSAGE 


of all men... live peaceably with all men... dearly be- 
loved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath 
_ if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him 
drink. : .. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with 
good!” (Rom. 12: 17-21.) 
In unnumbered examples history has been saying it too! 
A small town in the Tyrol was founded by Christian settlers 


who lived their faith, A regiment once marched to capture 


it. That they might not be unprepared a friend from a neigh- 
boring village ran to warn them. “Troops are coming!” he 
cried. “Arm yourselves quickly or they will take the town.” 

“We believe in Christ,’ replied the people, “not in arms. 
If they will take it, they must.” 

The soldiers came riding in, colors flying. They looked 
for the enemy, but saw instead the blacksmith at his anvil, 
the farmer at his plough, and the women at their spinning 
wheels. The boys ran out to see the horses, the babies danced 
with delight. 

“Where are your soldiers?” asked the intruders. 

“We have none.” 

“But we have come to take the town.” 

“No one will stop you.” In the military school the com- 
mander had not learned how to deal with such an emergency. 
“Tt is impossible to take a town like this,” he said, and the 


soldiers rode out of the village. Bullets cannot touch nor 


sword conquer such resistance. 

Wherever we see one meeting the savagery of force with 
the gentleness of good-will we see the same victory. William 
Penn goes out to the American Indians. They are accustomed 
to treachery and hatred; they are used to the sword and the 
bullet; their territories have been stolen by selfish and un- 
scrupulous adventurers. But the gentle Quaker comes to 


them unarmed, with justice and mercy, and finds the savage 


ready to understand love. Like answers to like. In the 
breasts of those wild, untutored children of the Great Father 
is a nobleness which rises to meet the noble heart of a human 
brother. Paton goes to the New Hebrides and is greeted 
with a shower of spears. He says to them: ‘We come to 
you without weapons of war! We come only to tell you 
about Jesus,” and village after village of habitual warriors, 
overawed by this brave, undaunted Christian who trusts only 
208 





SS ee ee ee Eee eee 


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/ 


CONQUEST OF EVIL IN THE NEW DAY [VII-m] 


in God, surrender to this extraordinary conquest of good-will 
and become happy Christians. Mary Slessor goes into the 
African bush, passing from place to place amid drink- 
maddened, debauched savages, unarmed and alone, sleeping 
in huts and on lake shores, in weariness and many dangers, 
settling disputes, casting out sorcery, onward she goes in her 
peaceful victory, fearless and with perfect faith. Her con- 
quest for Christ among the slum dwellers of Negroland was 
based not on force but on an utter reliance upon an unfailing 
power. “A _ spiritual force,’ wrote a friend, “seemed to 
radiate from her when in danger.” 

In all the great countries of the world today leaders are 
saying the same thing! We hear Lloyd George of England 
saying: ‘Europe has been drinking of armaments until it 
has gotten delirium tremens and it is drinking secretly now. 
We must rid ourselves of the idea that anything can be settled 
by force. Whether guns or cannon, strikes or lockouts, they 
belong to the barbarism of the past.” We hear the Mahatma 
Gandhi of India saying: “A truthful man cannot long re- 


main violent. He will perceive ... that so long as there is 


the trace of violence in him, he will fail to find the truth 
for which he is searching. ... The attainment of freedom, 
whether for a man, a nation, or the world, must be in exact 
proportion to the attainment of non-violence by each... . 
Let those who believe in non-violence keep the light burning 
in the present impenetrable gloom. The truth of a few will 
count, the untruth of millions will vanish even like the chaff 
before a whiff of wind!’ We hear President Coolidge say- 
ing: “We need to substitute the method of understanding 
for the method of compulsion, the method of love for the 
method of force!” The whole world will come to see at 
last what a great Christlike denomination, the Quakers 
(Friends) have seen and lived for years, that where violence 
begins Christianity and humanity ceases. All mature minds 
now must understand that nations never will come to their 
orbits of order except around this central sun of undying 
good-will. The holy land of peace never can be captured by 
force of arms. Jericho’s walls will fall and God’s people will 
enter at the triumph of tears and prayers and love. For those 
of us who want to travel heavenward there is but one way, and 
Grenville Kleiser well maps it: 
209 


[VIII-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


“To be strong and true; 
To be generous in praise and appreciation of others; 
To impute worthy motives even to enemies ; 
To give without expectation of return; 
To practice humility, tolerance, and self-restraint ; 
To make the best use of time and opportunity ; 
To keep the mind pure and the judgment charitable; 
To extend intelligent sympathy to those in distress; 
To cultivate quietness and non-resistance; 
To seek truth and righteousness ; E 
To work, love, pray and serve daily; 
To aspire greatly, labor cheerfully, and take God at His 
word; 4 
This is to travel heavenward !” 
IV <a 
Out in our modern world, wide and varied and complex, 
blind and hurried and caliais and materialistic, contacts aré 
bound to come with thousands of different opinions, habits, — 3 
traditions, cultures, aims, standards, tastes, motives, charac- 
ters. Society's mzlstrom of ceaseless searching and striving, 
its constant action and reaction we cannot escape. Though we 
go with the most genial temper, the most settled equanimity, 
the broadest charity, and the sweetest disposition, our spirits 
will be rebuffed, our rights trampled upon, our hearts made 
sore with blows. Cheeks will be slapped, coats torn and 
stolen, money and possessions begged and borrowed, and bur- __ 
dens grievous laid upon us by careless hands. The true 
follower of the Master will meet every inroad upon his life, 
every last unreasonable claim, in just one way—he will go 
forth with complete trust in the arm of God, in complete 
reliance upon spiritual conquest, girt with truth, with the 
breastplate of righteousness, having on his feet the sandals 
of peace, and taking the shield of faith, He may know the — 
hardest kind of experiences, but there will be a glory in it — 
surpassing anything a lower life can give. Because he has 
taken the hardest road, victory will bring the deepest satis- 
factions. A Paul’s conquest is the result of a Paul’s faith — 
and hope and love: “Are they ministers of Christ? (I 
speak as a fool.) I am more; in labours more abundant, in 
210 
















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CONQUEST OF EVIL IN THE NEW DAY [VIII-m]: 


stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths 
oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. 
Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I 
suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the great 
deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of 
robbers, in perils of mine own countryman, in perils by the 
heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in 
perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness 
and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in 
fastings often, in cold and nakedness. ... I will glory of the 
things which concern mine infirmities.” (II Cor. 11: 23-30.) 

In my study is a crucifix. One day, looking steadily upon 
the face of Jesus, there seemed to come this message from 


“the lips of the suffering Man: “The end of the road of love 


is always a cross! This is my plight of love amidst sin, but 
it is also my victory, the victory that overcometh the world!” 
Here then is Christ’s great secret—the Cross is God’s crystal- 


ized proof of what sin does to goodness, of what happens to 


a consistent spiritual conquest in a consistently evil society! 
It is the black shadow of the world’s towering selfishness 
thrown against the holy brightness of God’s sky! What but 
this stretched body on the tree could reveal the fate and the 
glory of yielding love in a materialistic, acquisitive, sinful 
society? What eloquent symbolism is here: the stripped body 
of one who gave all, the arms stretched wide in world- 
embrace, the feet torn and tired from walking love’s way, the 
head made royal with nature’s crown, the life blood dripping 
from body that never gave violence to any, his thought not 
for himself but for John and his mother and his foes who 
killed him, and companied to the last with sinners. Is this not ~ 


the symbol of a life that dies rather than deny the supremacy 


and potency of goodness? Surely from this high hill of Cal- 
vary this Cross of Christ seems to cry out to the men of the 
ages the fact of the spiritual victory through loss: “Fear not 
them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul!” 
In some crucial crisis of our own lives we may need to 
prove in the same spirit of Jesus that faith is the victory 
which overcometh the world! We too may have to say in 
the shadow of some mighty danger: “Here is my blood of 
the new spiritual adventure, shed for the redemption of the 
sins of many!” We too may know the pain of the stretchin 
211 


- [VIII-q] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE . 


of arms controlled only by love, of bleeding hands which- 


never struck a cruel blow, of side spear-pierced with unmur- 
muring patience, of crushed spirit unselfish and sweet to the 
end, of great inward suffering borne inwardly and uncom- 
plainingly, and face upward-turned to let the light of God’s 
love be upon it! Thus will we come to a deeper and deeper 
understanding of Jesus. We will be able to sing sincerely 
with Thomas ‘Lynch: 


“O break my heart; but break it as a field 

Is by the plough up-broken for the corn; 

O break it as the buds by green leaf sealed, 

Are, to unloose the golden blossoms, torn! 

O break my heart; break it, victorious Gcd, 

That life’s eternal well may flash abroad!” 

And sincerely will we be able to pray with St. Francis: 
“Praised be my Lord for all those who pardon one 

another for love’s sake, and who endure weakness and tribu- 

lation: blessed are they who peacefully shall endure, for Thou, 

O Most High, wilt give them a crown!” 


O our Father, teach us the law of peace, that we may walk 
this world like Jesus. Let us never vent our force upon any 
one of Thy children. Never complaining, never refusing, 
never repining, never resisting, O may we bear our cross to 


win this glad and great victory of the Spirit, through Jesus 


Christ, our Lord, Amen. 


LIFE QUESTIONS 


1. Name specific differences that following Jesus’ law of 
non-resistance would make in a modern man’s life. 

2. What is the Jesus’ way of meeting unfair demands or 
treatment? What is the Jesus’ idea of “getting square”? 

3. “There is one thing stronger than armies, and that is the 
power of an idea whose time has come.” 

“History has taught us that cannon and machine-guns are 
poor. weapons against ideas and principles.” (Ferdinand 
Ossendowski. ) 


Why is an idea, an ideal, a great truth, more powerful in’ 


the long run than physical or military force? 
212 





CONQUEST OF EVIL IN THE NEW DAY [VIII-q] 


What are the’ great ruling elements of our universe? 

4. Is Jesus’ policy of genial non-resistance practical in 
meeting an emergency presented by an armed burglar? by a 
strike? by a ruthlessly cruel and unfair factory management? 
by a deliberately mean fellow-passenger on the subway? by a 
fellow-workman who shoulders some of his work on us? 

5. “lhe future peace and happiness of this planet of ours 
lies very largely in the hands of the commercial classes.” 
(Sir Esme Howard.) 

Is this true? Will you find the Jesus’ spirit of sCoge 
non-resistance in the sphere of commerce? 

6. “There was a golf bag in the corner. I picked out a 
club and hit her over the head with it—I don’t know why— 
I didn’t like her face.” (A woman’s treatment of her rival.) 
Is the spirit of violence noticeably increasing or decreasing 
in modern society? 

7. “To every honest, earnest man in our time it must be 
clear that true Christianity—the doctrine of humility, for- 
giveness, love—is incompatible with the State and its haughti- 
ness, its deeds of violence, its capital punishments and wars!” 
( Tolstoi.) 

Can one be a Christian today and take an oath of allegiance 
to any state? Do you believe in military displays, Defense 
Days, bayonet drills, sham battles, dedications of war monu- 
* ments? What kind of a state of mind do they create? 

8. “Self-interest is entirely the axis of the moral world!”. 
~ (Bulwer Lytton.) 

Do you believe it or not? Back your answer with evidence. 

9. “Powerful as in the days of the first Empire of Augustus, 
Rome must again become the wonder of the whole world.” 
(Mussolini. ) 

_ Has this spirit increased or decreased since the World War? 
What does the present trend of the nations prophesy for the 
future? 

10. What hope does the life of Jesus offer us that goodness 
must eventually conquer? 

11, What is the explanation of the puzzling passage in 
Matt: 10: 34? in Luke 22:36? Does Jesus contradict his non- 
resistant policy in these passages? Read John 2: 13-17. In 
this case was Jesus untrue to his own ideal? 


, 


213 


CHAPTER IX 


Love in the New Day 


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DAILY READINGS 


The Christian Church has prated about a virtue called 
Christian love until one almost feels that the loud talk about — 
it is a cloak to cover the lack of it in the lives of many Chris- 
tians. Perhaps it is our constant talking of it that makes us) ~ 
think we have it; but anyone with sense can see that there 
is no more lack of meanness and spite, no more spirit of 
patient forgiveness and tender affection among church people 
than among worldly people. The words of Coventry Patmore ~ 
are apropos: 
















“Love blabb’d of is a great decline; 
A careless word unsanctions sense!” 


The love of God as revealed in Christ is supposedly the 
ideal for all church members. We all brag of it and no one — 
lives it.. See the spectacle of an unlovely Church: hundreds) ~ 
of warring sects quarreling spitefully about theological 
follies, churches marching to war to slay brother men, © 
churches talking of saving “heathen” and hating them with — 
the same breath, church members individually acting toward — 
their neighbors, not with love, but with ill-will, rancor, malice, — 
venom. Love in the new day will not be a theological mirage — 
but an actuality in men’s hearts as it was in the heart of Jesus! — 


Ninth Week, First Day 


So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, — 
Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He 
214 es 


LOVE IN THE NEW DAY [IX-1] 


saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. 
He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. 

He sayeth to him again the second time, Simon, son of 
Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou 
ha that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my 
sheep. 

He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, 
lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto 
him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, 
Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love 

thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.—John 21: 15-17. 


There are more heart-hungry people in the world today 
than ever before. Right in our large cities, in our teeming 
industrial centers, and in our country hamlets there are folk 
everywhere who are starved of affection. They are lonesome, 
discouraged, despondent; they have come into contact with 
a great, cold, heartless civilization and their lives are chilled; 
they are hungry for the warmth of love. Rexford must have 
had eyes that see: 


“Many a heart is hungry, starving, 
For a little word of love!” 


The fact is that love is an energy, not an attitude. It 
brightens, enriches, strengthens, vitalizes. Love feeds the 
soul and nourishes the higher nature. For growth love is 
needed as much as bread; for man does not live by bread 
alone. Child feeds on mother-love; parent feeds on child- 
love; friend feeds on friend-love. The heart that is starved 
completely of the food of love will surely die! And how many 
folks who have died of a starved heart we shall never be able 
to count, 

Jesus was poor and, in a worldly sense, uneducated. But 
he had something to give which men desperately needed, the 
bread of heaven—love. He schooled a few simple friends in 
his circle of love, and the power that they were commissioned 
to give was a puissant affection, an empowering love. That 
they did not understand his method fully is shown by the fact 
that he had to speak to Peter three times: “Feed my lambs.” 
“Feed my sheep.” “Feed my sheep.” The disciples thought 
he meant that they were to feed them with physical food; 
he meant, of course, nourishment for the soul. My lambs, he 

215 


[1X-2] THE MASTER'S MESSAGE 


said, are starving in this world for want of real love; feed “3 
them with the same love wherewith I have loved you. 

Christina Rossetti has expressed. the matter in powerful — 
words: 


“Feed My hungry brethren for My sake; 
Give them drink for love of them and Me; 
Love them as I loved thee when bread I brake 
In pure love of thee.” 


7 


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PO, ye een a ee Lee eT eee, ee 


Ninth Week, Second Day 


And many false prophets shail rise, and shall deceive 
many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of Hany 
shall wax cold.—Matt. 24: 11-12. 





















Why then, if love is so needed, is it so lacking? For one 
thing, the heart is hardened to a stone of self. Selfishness 
slays the vitalizing power of our love. Then there is the 
destructive, cold, hard-hearted attitude of the business world, 
where men say “Business is Business!” and the deeper long- — 
~ings of humankind are sacrificed on the smoking altar of — : 
Greed. But the commonest attitude which dries up the out- 
going springs of a refreshing love, is the shrinking from 
sentiment as 1f 1t were sin. One speaks of common sense, 
level-headedness, logic. Love seems an effeminate, sentimental 
thing, all right for preachers to talk about and choirs to sing — 
about and old ladies to dream about, but no quality for a — 
red-blooded man! The trouble with this is that when man — 
deliberately crushes sentiment out of his life, tramples upon — 
the nature God has given, he thus destroys the noblest ele- 
ment in his life; and the end of such action in any society — 
is the bloody tooth and red claw of the jungle. “A mind | 
all logic,” said Tagore, “is like a knife all blade; it makes — 
the hand bleed that uses it.’ And we might add it materia 
the heart bleed that comes near it! ~»* ~ 

False prophets today are not those who plead for more 
love. But the deceitful and deceiving and dangerous voices” a 
are those who indirectly plead for less,love by talking: of 7 
hunting down criminals like dogs, by talking of more “com- a 
mon sense” in business and politics, by talking of solving q 
earth’s dire problems by learning and knowledge alone. The 

216 


= 





LOVE IN THE NEW DAY [IX-3] 


iniquities of the militarists, the capitalists, and the crime- 
hunters abound; they are false prophets, whose love has waxed 
cold. In the quadrangle of Corpus Christi college, Oxford, 
is a sundial surmounted by a Pelican feeding her young, a 
medieval symbol of Christ. A poet, seeing it, was inspired 
to write these lines: 


“Three centuries ago, an old divine 
Did here erect 
A pelican to be a warning sign 
To intellect; 
Soothingly to the weary brain o’erwrought, 
It seems to say: 
‘Not through unending labyrinths of thought, 
Lies the true way, 
But where the red drops from the pierced breast run 
Love strong as death and brighter than the sun 
And slain for you!’” 


Ninth Week, Third Day 


Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: 
be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.— 
Matt. 10: 16. 


Love is a greater power than knowledge, but unintelligent 
love is an meffective love. In charitable work, in reform ac- 
tivity, in school and home and church, a great deal of love 
goes astray because it is not directed by the reason. An in- 
- formed and understanding mind is always a good accompani- 
ment for an eager, sacrificing love. While logic divorced 
from love is dangerous, logic and love together bear much 
good fruit. The fact that God has given man the thing we 
call affection is a good indication that he expected man to 
love; the fact that he gave man a mind is a good sign that 
he hoped man would think. 

In commissioning his friends for a work of human bene- 
faction, Jesus tells them that they are going out into a world 
where savage, wolflike selfishness is in the saddle. Love 
there, unsupported by solid wisdom, will be devoured as 
wolves devour sheep. Their love is to be dovelike and ex- 
ceedingly tender and kind, but a wisdom, serpentlike in its 

217 


[TX-5] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


skilfulness, must be theirs too. Jesus means by this no cold, — 
heartless shrewdness but a broad-gauge, deep-seated intelli- 
gence able to cope with the detailed problems which the work- 
ing out of love in human life confronts! 


Ninth Week, Fourth Day 


Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, | 
and love salutations in the marketplaces, and the chief seats ; 
in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts.—_ 
Mark 12: 38-39. 


The scribes were men of great possibilities. They had in 
their hearts divine energies; they had plenty of brains, they 
were well equipped, and would have made splendid disciples 
of the Master. But their lives became mistakes, because their 
love was misdirected. They squandered their love on things, 
and had none left for people. Their love was all wasted on — 
wordly show, pomp, position, and personal pleasure. b 

How like the scribes are many folk now. A bartender on -3 
a French liner tells of one rather usual type: “I have seen x 
old men wipe away a tear as they have tasted their first real 
cocktail after their years of disappointment and despair.” 
Our tears and our treasures are lavished on things that do : 
not. matter at all, while all around us are loved ones languish- 
ing for a little of our love. How many modern men are all 
wrapped up in love of their business, their science, their 
favorite sport, while they never give a thought to neglected 
fellow men who desperately need their devotion, Misdirected ; 
love is the abasement of our best. 


Ninth Week, Fifth Day 


Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a 
mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they — 
saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. And : 
Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given — 
unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach 
all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and 
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe , 
all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am 
with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.— 
Matt. 28: 16-20, x 











218 


=r ee 


LOVE IN THE.NEW.: DAY, [1X-6] 


Let us notice that the love of which we have been speak- 
ing is not some vague theory but an ever-present power. Men 
have always been skeptical of this sentiment called love, be- 
cause they have never tried it out. They believe in the force 
of gravity; every moment it is demonstrated. They believe 
in the force of electricity; it lights their houses, runs their 
machines. They believe in the force of magnetism; they can 
see it work. The love power is more intangible; it takes 
greater faith to apply it. When love as a power is given fair 
trial, its results are amazing. ° 

All the power in heaven and earth is wrapped up in that 
marvelous word—Love! It is the power propelling the 
planets, blooming in the flower, ordering the atom, smiling 
in the face of a child. It is love-power that makes the hap- 
piest homes, the most serviceable businesses, the most effective 
schools, the most glorious churches. Jesus sent his comrades 
forth to conquer the nations of earth, not with guns, but with 
a power greater than guns, a victorious love. He knew that 


_ the door of every race’s heart would swing open at the touch 


of love. He knew that the kingdom of God for which men 
dreamed would come when mortal eyes were enlightened and 
mortal hearts inspirited with that great love which was in 
his own breast. Wherever love is, there is the spirit of Jesus 
always, and that spirit alone can lead the world into the 
Kingdom. As Bunner put it: 


4 


“Love must kiss that mortal’s eyes 
Who hopes to see fair Arcady. 

No gold can buy you entrance there; 
But beggared Love may go all bare— 
No wisdom won with weariness; 

But Love goes in with Folly’s dress— 
No fame that wit could ever win; 
But only Love may lead Love in.” 


Ninth Week, Sixth Day 


But’ when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with 
compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scat- 


_ tered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.—Matt. g: 36. 


219 


[IX-6] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE —\_— 


Let us observe, also, that love is not an aristocratic, partial, 
exclusive virtue but an all-embracing, sympathetic kindness! 


“I wonder why it is,” said Henry Drummond, “that we are — 
not kinder than we are! How much the world needs it! — 


How easily it is done! How spontaneously it acts! How 
infallibly it is remembered! How superabundantly it pays 
itself back!” It is truly a mystery why people are not kinder. 
The results upon others and upon ourselves are so much 
better than when we are unkind. Why are we so indifferently, 
so coldly, so callously unkind? 


There is not that yearning love in our hearts for all hu- 
manity which Jesus had. There is no more revealing line — 


in the New Testament than the one here quoted—“he saw 


the multitudes, he was moved with compassion”? What a _ 


tender heart beat in his breast. How easily it was moved 
by human need and sorrow and sin. How quickly his hands 


and heart leaped to help every suffering soul. What a wealth 


of impartial, generous sympathy for all lay deep within the 


life which could be so kind as he was. When Dr. E. E. a 


Sparks, beloved president of the Pennsylvania State College, 
died, the students of the college wrote on all the sidewalks of 


the campus four words which made a mighty memorial of love _ 


more significant than any monument. These were the words: 


“Good morning, my son!” Every Penn State man knew what E 
they meant; it was the loving greeting with which dear old 


“prexy” met every student on the campus. They were his 
“boys.” How he loved them; and what deep and lasting affec-_ 


tion they gave in return. It was the same quality of love that = 
Jesus showed. Are we afraid to show our loving kindness 
impartially toward all human souls? Witter Bynner was ac- _ 


quainted with the real Christ: 


“He loved the speech of simple men 
And little children’s laughter, 

He came—they always came again, 
He went—they followed after. 


“He had sweet-hearted things to say, 
And he was solemn only 
When people were unkind . . . that day 
He would stand there straight and lonely, 
220 


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LOVE IN THE NEW: DAY [1X-7] 


“And tell them what they ought to do: 
‘Love other folk,’ he pleaded, 

‘As you love me and I love you!’ 
But almost no one heeded. 


“A poet died in Galilee, 
They stared at him and slew him . 
What would they do to you and me 
If we could say we knew him?” 


Ninth Week, Seventh Day 


Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down 
his life for his friends. Ye are my friends if ye do what- 
soever I command you. ... These things I command you 
that ye love one another. If the world hate you, ye know 
that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the 
world, the world would love his own. If they have perse- 
cuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept 
my saying, they will keep yours also. ... All these things 
will they do unto you for my name’s sake. ... And ye 
shall also bear witness, because ye have been with me from 
the beginning.—John 15:13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 27. 
~ Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved 


‘them unto the end.—John 13:1. 


Perfect love goes through to the end; it loves through thick 
and thin; it loves to the uttermost! Just as the sun keeps on 
shining, giving out its warm beams, its healing rays, even 
when the earth is clothed in clouds and wrapped in mists 
and fogs, so love keeps on loving through hate, through 
persecution, through misunderstanding, even unto death! 

Patience is one of the most exquisite characteristics of the 
Christian man or woman. When a life becomes spiritualized, 
the place where you will most quickly observe the trans- 
formation is at the point of patience. Where before the per- 
son was quickly out of sorts, easily disturbed and provoked, 
swift to anger and plenteous in hate, now one sees the pa- 
tience of the Christ revealed in calm, kindly steadfastness. 
There is an absence of pettiness, of suspicion, of vindictive- 
ness. It is hard to see how one can be further away from 
the spirit of the Master, no matter what his orthodox beliefs, 
than a man irascible of temper, testy, peevish, and irritable. 

221 


[IX-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


We are to bear witness that we have been with Jesus by 
our long-suffering endurance, in spite of everything, keeping 
the love that loves through to the very end. “Let patience,” 
says Jesus’ brother, “have her perfect work, that ye may be 
perfect and entire, wanting nothing!” (James 1:4) Long- 
fellow voices the highest ideal of Christian living when he 
sings: 


“Patience, accomplish thy labor; accomplish thy work of 
affection ! 

Sorrow and silence are strong, and patient endurance is god- 
like ; 

Therefore accomplish thy labor of love, till the heart is made 
godlike, 

Purified, strengthened, perfected, and rendered more worthy 
of heaven!” 


MEDITATION ON THE MASTER’S THOUGHT 


Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy 
neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love 
your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them 
that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, 
and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your 
Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on 


the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and — 


on the unjust. 


For if ye love them which love you, what reward have — 


ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute 


your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not — 


even the publicans so? 


Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in 


heaven is perfect.—Matt. 5: 43-48. 


I 


As you go out into the world, Jesus says, you may meet _ 


good and generous and magnanimous people who will pre- 


sent no problem. But occasionally you will find others: — 


hateful people who will curse you, malicious people who will 


hate you, mean people who will despitefully use you, ill- "4 
natured people who will persecute you. One of your biggest — 


222 





LOVE IN THE NEW DAY [IX-m] 


problems in life will be in knowing how to deal with folk 
of this type. Now in Jesus’ time the customary solution of 
this problem was for the Jew thoroughly to hate his ene- 
mies. Everywhere in the Old Testament one finds this the 
ordinary attitude. Thus the Psalmist prays for evil to come 
down upon his enemies (Psalms 54:5) ; he begs that they shall 
be vexed and put to shame (Psalms 6: 10); he beseeches God 
to cut them off and annihilate them (Psalms 143:12); he 
deliberately expresses his bitter hate for them (Psalms 
139: 22); and cursing his foes, he implores God to dash their 
little children to death against the stones (Psalms 137: 9). 

The advice of Jesus is in striking contrast to this attitude. 
He states clearly and decisively a principle of living which 
lies very close to the roots of all happiness in human society. 
It is a magnificent rule for everyday life. When others, he 
says, are showing their enmity and spite, you show your love. 
When others are cursing, you bless them. When others are 
hateful and vengeful, you reveal your loving kindness. When 
others are spiteful, you pray for them. When others persecute 
you, you display your good-will. That is the easiest way, in 
the long run, to face the problem which people of ill-will 
present. 

In the long run this handling of the situation Jesus sug- 
gests may be easiest, but at first it is one of the most diffi- 
cult things in life to do. With a little analysis, however, it will 
not be hard for us to see why love always works out better 
in the end than hate. For one thing, the man of hateful 
anger discloses a pitiful smallness of character. Hate usually 
springs from envy, that corrosive of the soul. For the hate 
we bear a man is usually the result of our love for some 
good which we imagine he possesses, or which, being in our 
possession now, we fear he has attacked. Envy slew Abel 
and crucified Jesus. History has no single exception to this 
rule; the small man was the man of hate, the big man was 
the man of love. The ideal man keeps his head and his 
temper while other people are losing theirs. The ideal man 
is big-hearted, generous, magnanimous, while others are nar- 
row, small, mean. The ideal man gives beauty for ashes, 
roses for thorns, perfume of love for poison of hatred. To 
recompense injury with kindness is the very law of his life. 

223 


x 


[IX-m] THE MASTER'S MESSAGE one 1am 


“Humanity is the peculiar characteristic,” said Lord Chester- 
field, “of great minds. Little, vicious minds abound with 
anger and revenge, and are incapable of feeling the exact 
pleasure of forgiving their enemies” Arthur Guiterman has 
a verse which ought to give us pause when we start upon 
one of our impetuous leaps of hating: 


“When I .am dead, what I have felt so long, 
My soul shall know in clearer, purer light; 
That where I loathed and hated, I was wrong; 

That where I loved and pitied, I was right.” 


The penalties of hate are many. An angry word will raise 
the pulse of ‘a horse and often highly excite him. Its effect 
upon a sensitive child or a nervous older person is often 
disastrous. But the most distressing effects are felt in the 
hater’s own heart. There his anger has set up confusion and 
disharmony; he has lost the chance to make a friend; he has — 
narrowed his own soul; he has embittered his own spirit; 
he has taken a step backward and downward spiritually; 
his hate has inflicted an inward penalty on all the powers — 
of his life. When we permit ourselves to stoop for one mo- 
ment to hatred we must remember it is nothing but sheer 
waste, and that the folly of it is irretrievable. John Ken- 
drick Bangs voices my own deepest feelings: . 


“To hate an enemy I hold to be an idle whim 

That hurts me more, all said and done, than e’er it hurteth 
him. a 

It clutters up my heart with wrath, and fills my soul with — 4- 
gloom, ’ 

And wastes a lot of useful time on bitter thoughts of doom!” 






That man only is progressing in life whose heart is void of i 
hate, whose spirit knows more and more of “the depth and __ 
height and length and breadth of the love of Christ which 
passeth knowledge.” (Eph. 3:18-10.) a 

The fact is that love is a beautiful, joyful, creative power _ 
which never works so well as it does under the fiery test of 
another’s malevolence. An instance of this power comes to 

224 


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ee ie re Site a ei 


LOVE IN THE NEW DAY [IX-m] 


us from a missionary. in India. A savage Moslem tribe had 
brutally slain a young American missionary who had just 
arrived in the field with his wife and child. The shock for 
the young mother was very great, but her Christian spirit 
won in her struggle with hate. With the money, every last 
cent, which she received in insurance following her husband’s 
death, a hospital was erected for the care of the sick of the 
very tribe which had so savagely killed her loved one. Need- 
less to say that act of charitable magnanimity went a long 
way in presenting Christ’s message to that tribe; in the end 
they surrendered to the love of Christ as it had come to them 
through the heart of a brave little Christian woman. The 
lover is the freer of the deeper, better self in others. The lover 
is the creator of love in other hearts. Hate is one of the most 
dire negations of experience: it makes men hateful, homely, 
gloomy, lonesome, sorrowful, weak, impotent, disagreeable, 
disliked. Hate is completely destructive; while love is com- 
pletely constructive. Love builds, inspires, uplifts, heals, 
cheers, comforts, beautifies, attracts, empowers. Truly Paul 


- mounted to the very summit of Christian vision when he 


wrote that marvelous psalm: 


“Love suffereth long, and is kind; 
Love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 
Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, 
Is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 

Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 
Beareth all things, believeth all things, 

Hopeth all things, endureth all things. 

Love never faileth!”’ (1 Cor. 13:4-8) 


I think that is one of the most beautiful elements in our 
Christian faith: Love will not fail! And Charles Mackay 
has expressed it for us in arresting lines: 


“What might be done if men were wise— 
What glorious deeds, my suffering brother, 
Would they unite 
In love and right, 
And cease their scorn of one another? 
225 


» [IX-m] | THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


“Oppression’s heart might be imbued 
With kindling drops of loving kindness; 
And knowledge pour, 
From shore to shore, 
Light on the eyes of mental blindness. 


“The meanest wretch that ever trod, 
The deepest sunk in guilt and sorrow, 
Might stand erect 
In self-respect ; 
And share the teeming world tomorrow.” 


IT 


In ordinary moments the big test of love doesn’t come, 
We go our way and no occasion of choice arises. Then comes 
a crisis. Perhaps the start is a slight difference of opinion. 
Most probably a difference in rearing, a hereditary leaning, 
a divergence in traditions, race, habits or customs provokes 
a clash of feeling. There is a definite disagreement; then a 
quarrel; then hot words and a display of temper; and the 
crisis confronts us. What will be the outcome? That de- 
pends upon our preparation. The test of the strength of a 
steel beam comes when it is’ put into the bridge; when the 
heavy strain comes it will give way if its structure is marred 
by a flaw. The test of a man’s vitality comes in the crisis 
of an illness or physical strain; the outcome then depends 
‘upon the reserve supply of strength. Just so in a soul crisis. 
At the right time we fall back upon our spiritual resources. 
If they are adequate the fight is averted; peace comes be- 
cause at least one person has prepared the Christ-heart. The 
most attractive gift which love bestows is the Christ-power 
to forgive. 

The fact that full and complete forgiveness is love’s highest 
achievement places the power to pardon at the peak of the 
Christian virtues. Few of us attain, of course, to the per- 
fection of forgiveness. To suffer deliberate injury or loss 
at the hands of another, to know someone despises us, even 
hates us, and yet to empty from the mind all sense of anger 
or hostility and consistently to love and bless, that is a most 
exacting requirement. Peter was troubled about it and on 

226 : 


LOVE INTHE NEW DAY __‘[IX-m] 


one occasion he came to Jesus perplexed and questioning: 
“Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I for- 
give him? till seven times?” Jesus saith unto him, “I say 
not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times 
seven!” (Matt. 18:21-22.) The process of pardon is a “giving 
for’ another, not once, not twice, not even seven times, but 
seventy times seven, which really means without limit. Jesus 
says the loving heart must forgive endlessly! And the for- 
giving is to be no weak toleration, grudgingly given, but a 
wholehearted erasing of the wrong from the memory, a 
complete obliteration of all antagonism or ill-feeling, an en- 
tire and absolute cancelling of prejudice or punishment. For 
forgiveness is truly the greatest giving—it gives back that 
which is hardest of all to restore, faith and confidence and 
trust! John Oxenham has stated for us this power of love 
in a lovely poem: 


“Love ever gives— 
Forgives—outlives, 

And ever stands 

With open hands. 

And while it lives, 

It gives. 

For this is Love’s prerogative, 
To give, and give, and give!” 


Is mother-love not the symbol of love which is stronger 
than death because it can suffer and forgive and still trust? 
Is Christ-love not the symbol of redemption because it can 
bear all manner of iniquities and still be patient and enduring 
and forgiving? “Surely he hath borne our griefs . . . he 
was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our 
iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; 
and with his stripes we are healed.” (Isa. 53:4-5.) 

While most of us do not succeed in achieving perfect for- 
giveness, we at least try. But the most repulsive and un- 
Christian attitude one can imagine is that of the man who 
deliberately refuses to forgive, who recognizes the fact that 
he himself will some day need to be forgiven, and still re- 
tains a hard immovability of heart. No man is a good man 
who has not learned the grace of forgiving. The man who 

227 


[IX-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


prays “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,’ who 
~reads in his New Testament “Forgive and ye shall be for- — 
given” (Luke 6:37), who has prayed in the presence of his 
own mistakes “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner,” and yet 
goes his obdurate, unrelenting way of stony-hearted unfor- 
giveness is one of the most unattractive and despicable char- 
acters one can well imagine. Robert Burns, who to his sad- 
ness and bitter disappointment had met many such, turns back 
to God in his poem, “Prayer in the Prospect of Death,” with 
tender confidence that the character of God is quite other- 
wise: * 
“But, Thou art good! and goodness still 
Delighteth to forgive!” 


To forgive sin in others becomes easier when we are con- 
scious of our own shortcomings. So Paul, in one of the most 
touching passages in all his brilliant epistles, urges the mem- 
bers of the Ephesian church to forgiveness as they recall their 
own need for it: “Be ye kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one 
another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” 
(Eph. 4:32.) The power to forgive, however, usually dimin- 
ishes with the innocence of one’s own heart. Who has not 
known folks, pure, saintly, noble in their own lives, whose _ 
one besetting sin was their cold, unforgiving attitude toward® — 
the sinner? Their very pride in their own innocence bound 
their hearts with unyielding fetters. Their very virtue was 
the factor which made their spirits sensitive to wounds; and 
wrongs rankle in the heart long after they should have been 
forgotten. If this be true, how much more amazing then is — 
the extraordinary forgiveness of the Master? Here was a life 
singularly innocent, a soul of matchless purity and refinement, 
a heart transcendently true to all that was best, but even after 
the most cruel injuries, the most extreme and barbaric injus- 
tices, he could look down from his cross of agony with eyes of 
wonderful pity and pray: “Father, forgive them. ie 
The most sublime spectacle of human record is this vision — 
of the utterly innocent Jesus, not only forgiving his enemies, 
but loving them and praying for them! It is his own doctrine 
demonstrated! The beautiful words of Edmeston delineate 
admirably the spirit of Christian forgiveness: : 

228 





ve a 
1. ea 


LOVE IN THE NEW DAY [IX-m] 


‘When on the fragrant sandal tree 

The woodman’s axe descends, 

And she, who bloomed so beauteously, 
Beneath the weapon bends— 

E’en on the edge that wrought her death, 
Dying she breathes her sweetest breath, 
As if to token in her fall 

Peace to her foes, and love to all. 


“How hardly man this lesson learns, 

To smile, and bless the hand that spurns; 
To see the blow, to feel the pain, 

And render only love again! 

One had it—but he came from heaven, 
Reviled, rejected, and betrayed; 

No curse He breathed, no plaint He made, 
But when in death’s dark pang He sighed, 
Prayed for His murderers and died!” 


III 


The main trouble with our handling of this high Christian 
standard of unfailing love is that we are all caught in the 
omnipresent whirlpool of popular habit. To drift with the 
crowd is almost irresistible. The pull of social custom is 
very great and the man who tries to swim against it in the 
direction of the Christ-ideal finds the going hard indeed. It 
would be strange if the man who really and truly tries to 


“live as Christ would have him live, to carry on with uncom- 


plaining and prayerful forgiveness in spite of everything, did 
not hear himself spoken of in terms such as these: “ninny,” 
“crazy fool,’ “lets people walk all over him.” It is in the 
face of just such misunderstanding as this, Jesus says, that 
we are to stand out against the crowd. If you love them 
that love you, what virtue is there in that? Even the pub- 
licans, who represent the lowest average of popular morality, 
do that. And if you only salute your own friends, what 
good is there in that? These easy-going publicans do that 
also. Are you living above the average? What do you 
more than others? Are you able to rise above the malice 


~ and impatience and hatred around you into the holy atmosphere 


229 


- [IX-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE . 


of God’s great love? These are the key-questions of Jesus 
to men today as they were of old; they constitute a chal- 
lenge to those who conform to the crowd. 

One of the noblest figures in the New Testament was a man 
who caught the vision and dared to come out from: the crowd. 
When we read the seventh chapter of Acts we are utterly 
amazed at his daring in denouncing the false ideals of his 
day. Stephen, the first of the martyrs, reveals the loftiness 
of his life and his closeness to the Christ-ideal, not so much 
in his brilliant denunciation of the falseness of the contem- 
porary orthodoxy as in the unusually noble way in which he 
accepted his death: “They cast him out of the city . 
stoned him . . . and he kneeled down, and cried, Lord, tay 
not this sin to their charge. And wher he had said this, he 
fell asleep.” (Acts 7:58-60.) For us, like Stephen, to take 
higher ground in our thinking and our attitude toward others 
may involve martyrdom, not perhaps to be slain with boulders, 
but to be bruised with the stones of misunderstanding, SUS 
picion, ostracism, and bitter enmity. How much easier it is 
to be contented with existing standards and conditions. How 
many, many people are fooled in self-ignorance as they sit 
cushioned upon the low standards of modern moral judg- 
ment. A lamb looks tolerably white against the greenness 
of the summer grass; but when snow falls in virgin purity 
upon the hillside, how black! Paul was proud once as he 
lifted his haughty head among the Pharisees; but when 
Christ shone in brightness upon him, how humble! Against 
the background of our current conceptions of truth and mo- 
rality and love our lives may appear fairly white. But let 
us set these lives of ours against the background of truth 
and morality and love in Christ, and what a difference! 
Judged as to that bright hackeroundd we can no longer fool 
ourselves about our own perfection, the perfection of modern 
society or the perfection of modern society’s standards. Be- 
side Christ we are as black as can be! Upon that day when 
a man is convinced of the sinfulness of his own average 
respectability does he really begin struggle for the Christ-life 
against the deadly down-drag of surrounding self-satisfaction! 


“Easier to rest on pillows 
Filled with sweet, soft lies, 
230 





LOVE IN THE NEW DAY [IX-m] 


Than gird on Love 
And contend with the crowd! 


“Easier, smooth sophistries, silk 
Proppings, coverings—peace— 
Than Stephen’s stones 
To fall asleep among! 


‘But who stood there to say 
To Stephen, bloody, 

Torn and shining-faced: 
‘Welcome—well done?’ ” 


IV 


The philosophy of indomitable love which Jesus gives us 
in the message on the Mount is the key to the great problem 
of war. Decoration days are usually the occasion for much 
elaborate oratory, but the people hear very little discussion 
and suggestion as to the elimination of the Monster which 
has devoured the mourned dead. The greatest goal on God’s 
earth for servants of Jesus at this stage is to make war im- 
possible. But while a few Christian leaders are struggling 
to get the spirit of Jesus into the war question, many well- 
meaning but misguided citizens are setting up in public 
squares cannon and monuments which frequently give the pub- 
lic the impression that war is a glorious achievement, a kind of 
glorified Sunday school picnic. So the solidified spirit of na- 
tionalism, the old curse of selfishness, and the stumps of 
traditional hatreds persist in the hearts of people. They can 
be rooted out only by the dynamite of Jesus’ love. Despite 
the foolish jingoism which sees in every other race a po- 
tential enemy and conceives of war as a necessity in the econo- 
my of nations, the real Christian bases his attitude on this 
fundamental conviction: War is as unnecessary as disease 
and if the love of Jesus was regnant in all hearts it would 
be utterly impossible! 

While the people of the world have ever been badly fooled 
and betrayed by their leaders, one may certainly be sure now 
that the great majority of the peoples of the earth want 
peace, are praying and hoping for it as never before. The 

231 


[IX-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


_ love in the people’s hearts has been thwarted, however, be- 
cause those who make war, the militarists, have been stubborn — 
and wilful in refusing to subnut the differences of nations to 
the arbitrament of reason! The military group squanders 
time, energy, thought, and money on the organization of a 
vast and intricate military machine when the same expendi- 
ture of effort ‘in the direction of peace would be a far more 
reasonable and satisfactory procedure. Man is, of course, 
no longer a rational or moral being when under the power 
of great passions. But before the typhoon of racial madness 
sweeps over the nations man is a rational and moral being, 
and it is then that he should build the cyclone cellar of mutual 
understanding and confidence. What wars of folly and what 
conflicts of unbridled hatred, what fearful international crimes 
might be averted if before the crisis came men had estab- 
lished sympathetic relations and mutual confidence around 
a common table of reason and friendship! The time has at 
last come when man can no longer leave the solution of the 
question of war to luck or chance; we must think the thing 


through; we must put reason above passion, understanding — 


above compulsion, intelligent love above violence; the brain 
of man has now developed to the point where rationality can 
enter the control of war! Hermann Hagedorn in “The Boy 
in Armor” voices the feeling of an increasing multitude: 


“You cried across the worlds, and called us sons! 
We came as sons, but what you made of us 
Were bleeding shapes upon an altar, slain 
To appease your god INERTIA where he sits 
Muttering dead words and chewing at old bones. 
Because you would not think, we had to die! 

* * * * * * * 


Bow down and hear! You have more sons than these; 

And they have fancies and imaginings 

And dauntless spirits and hearts made for love, 

And clean hands and clean eyes and high desires. 

They will go forth and die, if you command, 

As we have died, since they love liberty 

Even as we loved her, and would give her cause 

The only gift they are aware is theirs. 

Wake, dreaming World!. Think, oh gray world bewitched! 
232 


LOVE IN THE NEW DAY [IX-m] 


Out through untraveled spaces where no mind 

Has dared to venture, let your sails be spread! 

O, world, there is another way to serve 

Justice and liberty, than thus to fling 

The glory and the wonder of young lives 

Beneath the hoofs of horses! Send your soul 

Into the earth and through the clouds to find it! 
And now you others who must live 

Shall do a harder thing than dying is— 

For you shall think! And ghosts will drive you on!” 


The love in the hearts of the people has been thwarted, 
also, because those who make war, the industrialists, have 
always supported a propaganda praising the benefits of war! 
It seems hardly possible that men in their right minds would 
actually see any good in the holocaust of modern warfare. 
But by taking occasional psychological somersaults we all have 
the art of believing that which we want to believe. Men who 
make money out of war naturally search about for argu- 
ments which will keep the war business going. Thus, on 
the peg of patriotism, it is possible to hang a glittering array 
of reasons for war. Other less interested people are com- 
pletely fooled and they too take up the cry. So the benefits 
of war are listed for the increased gayety of nations: courage, 
discipline, heroism, “preserving sovereignty,’ “defending 
liberty,’ “protecting national honor,’ advancing the “cause 
of Christ,” saving the nation from degeneration to “a pack 
of weaklings”! An interesting illustration of just how peo- 
ple are deceiving themselves about war is furnished by a re- 
viewer writing in a notable magazine on Ellen Key’s “War, 
_ Peace and the Future.” After describing the book as one more 
plea for peace, he adds sarcastically: “One does not find, how- 
ever, any plea for justice, liberty, or human rights!” The im- 
plication is that these come by war. Can any one longer believe 
that justice, liberty, and human rights are obtained by whole- 
sale slaughter which destroys twenty million lives, wrecks half 
a continent, wastes billions in treasure, and leaves a trail of 
broken hearts around the earth? And even clergymen, blinded 
by the war-spirit, distribute their silly lies about war bringing 
Christ closer to men. International conflict is the chief devil 
that actuaily drives out the spirit of Jesus. “I never can 

233 , 


{1X-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


think,” says Thomas Hardy in one of his wise interviews, 
published in Les Nouvelles Litteraires, “without astonishment, 
that there are some people in different countries who talk 
about the benefits of war. What nonsense! War is an evil 


4, eee 


thing, and can only breed evil... . . War is a fatality, having .— 


nothing to do with reason and intelligence. It is a kind of 
devilish determinism. . . . The Great War weighs upon the 
world like a curse, and it has not yet borne its bitterest 
fruit!” 

Any one who knows war at first hand—what it does to- 
men, what its results are in suffering and heartbreak and 
immorality, its shattered bones and minds and souls, its pus- 
swollen bodies and germ-infected limbs and gas-rotted lungs, | 


its viperous brood of suspicion, lust, hate, fear, and revolting 


cruelty—is guilty of the grossest imbecility in talking of its 
benefits. There are no benefits from war. It is not in accord 
with God’s will for men, nor does it further in any way the 
program of Christ for human society. The love of Jesus is 
the way to abundant life. The curse of war is the way to 


abundant death. Alfred Noyes has pictured its results ac- 4 


curately : 


“Through the purple thunders there are silent shadows creep- 


ing 
With murderous gleams of light, and then—a mighty leap- 
ing roar if 
Where foe and foe are met;.and then—a long low sound of 
weeping ; 


As Death laughs out from sea to sea. . 


“Count up, count up the stricken homes that wail the first- 


born son, 


Count by your starved and fatherless the tale of what hath s 


perished ; 


Then gather with your foes and ask if you—or I—have 


won!” 


Morevoer, the love in the hearts of the people has been 4 


thwarted because those who make-war, the diplomats, have 


stupidly and shortsightedly disregarded the human factor im 


war! A trifling violation of a treaty, the dismissal of a minis- 
234 


rN ; 3 
Baa Sree ee 


a 







LOVE IN THE NEW DAY -  [IX-m] 


ter, an imagined insult to “national honor,’ a slight racial 
antipathy and the leaders call the people to arms, involving 
the destruction of lives and property, when the calamity 
might have been averted by men with a modicum of humanity 
in their hearts. The conscientious objector who has caught 
the spirit of Christ and refuses to imbrue his hand in the 
blood of his brother is then called a traitor and a “slacker” 
by the wily politician who has had war declared. The honest 
Christian who despises war and killing receives also the 
indignant and savage scorn of the military party, who, 
like a late Secretary of War in the United States, say: “I 
cannot appreciate such consciences and such scruples!” The 
fact is that the great affairs of the world are often directed 
‘by men who either have no idea of the sufferings of the com- 
mon man in war or shut their minds to all thought of it so 
as to spare their consciences. Benjamin Franklin was a keen 
observer. Here is a very significant line from his pen: “Ob- 
servations on my reading history, in Library, May 19, 1731 

. that the great affairs of the world, wars, revolutions, 
etc., are carried on and effected by parties. That the view 
of these parties is their present personal interest. . . . That 
few in public affairs act upon a mere view of the good of 
their country. . . . That fewer still, in public affairs, act 
~with a view to the good of mankind!” Ten thousand men 
murdered on a distant battlefield disturbs nét the peace of a 
statesman who is grinding his ax on the outcome of a war; 
a flotilla of battleships beneath the waves of the ocean is 
hardly more than “a news item”. for the average minister 
of war, and a city in flames means less than the fire in the | 
‘furnace to the “leaders of affairs.” A poem written during 
the Great War illustrates the relation of the makers of war 
to the actual bloodshed itself: 


“Fach was honest after his way, 
Lukewarm in faith, and old; 
And blood, to them, was only a word, 
And the point of a phrase their only sword, 
And the cost of war, they reckoned it 
In little disks of gold.” 


235 


[IX-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


V 






Se. xt ‘ 

Have the diplomats, the senators, the ministers of war, the — 
cabinets any love for the men they send into the melstrom? — 
Have they a heart for humanity? Do the leaders of nations — 
forgive seventy times seven to avert a war? Do they bless — 
_ or hate, curse or pray, as they think of their supposed enemy- — 
nation? It is almost»silly to ask the questions! Of course, E 
the nations do not act according to the Jesus’ philosophy of — 
love, nor do they even pretend to do so. They act according — 
to the philosophy of power! There is no other obstacle in the — 
way of peace which can compare with this one. It is the — 
taproot out of which the whole war-system springs. The 
philosophy of power is a natural rationalization of industrial 
expansion; in its rampant patriotic form it means a haughty 
intolerant nationalism seeking for a “divine” mission which — 
leads through blood and tears; it is the inevitable result of — 
education that teaches material success and religion that — 
preaches an institutional God who measures virtue by money, 
organization, buildings, and ecclesiastical magnificence. This — 
doctrine of power values life in terms of aggressive achieve- ~ 
ment. It has been nourished at the very breast of fierce rival- — 
ry and competition until its thought always centers around ~ 
winning—lording it over a competitor, making a bigger and | 
better impression than the other fellow, than any other busi-— 4 
ness, than any other nation! Germany, from 1870 to 1918, 
affords an excellent example of a nation obsessed with this 
power-philosophy (although in the nineteenth century Eng- . 


tae de SNS ih 










conclusion of such a program: 


“He is known to you all, he is known to you all, 
He crouches behind the dark gray flood, 
Full of envy, of rage, of craft, of gall, 
Cut off by waves that are thicker than blood. 
Come let us stand at the Judgment place, 
An oath to swear to, face to face, 
An oath of bronze no wind can shake, 
An oath for our sons and their sons to take. 
236 


LOVE IN THE NEW DAY _ [I X-m] 


Come hear the word, repeat the word, 
Throughout the Fatherland make it heard. 
We will never forego our hate, 

We have all but a single hate, 

We love as one, we hate as one, 

We have one foe and one alone— 


ENGLAND!” 


The philosophy of power not only has its influence in the 
making of wars but it also operates to obstruct effective or- 
ganization for peace. It is obvious to any thinking man that 
some simple orderly form of fraternity among the nations 
must be effected before peaceful conciliation can be substi- 
tuted for war’s carnage. In the League of Nations the world 


has such a working organization; true, it possesses the limi- 


tations of any new and previously untried experiment, espe- 


cially the limitations which arise from racial suspicion and 


misunderstanding; but it 7s a beginning. Right here is where 
America’s shame comes in;-we have a philosophy of power; 
we are afraid that national power may be abridged by en- 
trance into the League! “History shows no irony more glar- 
ing,’ says Edwin Mead. “Every consideration of national 


pride and international obligation commanded us to first 


place in the League of Nations . . . instead with our base 


suspicions, our partisan rivalries, and financial dialectics we 


have made the sublimest cause of our epoch the football of 
petty politics, and have become the drag and damper upon the 
world in its great struggle onward and upward. . 

But League of Nations or no League of Nations ae philo- 


‘sophy of power which is blowing through our modern world 


like a whirlwind is the real danger. For wherever it touches 


a human life it turns spiritual devotion to cruel, selfish ambi- 


tion. No matter what organization we have, nothing on earth 


is really safe until we have filled the hearts of people every- 
where with love. A man and a woman may dwell in the 
finest home, they may have a supposedly perfect system for 
keeping peace, but if there is hate or selfishness in their 
hearts, the system cannot keep the peace long. In the state 
we may have the best laws men can devise, police power un- 
excelled, but if there is a lawless spirit abroad among the 


_ people, crime will abound for it comes out of the heart. The 


237 


{1X-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


same is true among the nations; no system will keep the 
peace so long as the people themselves are controlled by the 
philosophy of power rather than the philosophy of love. The 
world waits in agony for that day when this love of Jesus, 
this all-forgiving love, shall. be taken out of the realm 
of words into the realm of deeds. We had better do 
it soon. “I was at Stettin on the Baltic in the summer 
of 1920,” says Francis Miller, “Prisoners of war were 
being repatriated out of Siberia. A boatload of some seven 
or eight hundred came in. Of these some two hundred 
and fifty had lost their reason. These were the dregs of war. 
As I looked into their dull, witless eyes I knew better what 


war was, ant J also learned something of what the Cross_ 
meant. These men, as in every age, had been crucified be- — 


cause the society into which they were born had missed God’s 
will for it. They were degraded into cattle because of the 
stupidity and sin of college-trained makers of ‘statecraft in 
America, France, England, and Germany. Our father’s sins 
produced that and our sins will erect for our descendants a 


myriad crosses on many a far-flung battlefield unless we, by 


God’s grace, make less a botch of reading his will and display 


more energy in fulfilling it!” Forged on the anvil of hard. 


reason, melted and welded in the fierce furnace of a Great 


Wat’s experience, this mighty conviction has bound the think- Bs 


ers of earth in one resounding unity: War must stop or the 
race 1s doomed! And deep, deep down in our hearts we are 


sure that the only way to the world of the peaceful new day 


is that of Jove! 


“Your dreamers may dream it, 
The shadow of a dream, 
Your sages may deem it 
A bubble on the stream; 

Yet our kingdom draweth nigher 
With each dawn and every day, 
Through the earthquake and the fire 

‘Love will find out the way!” 


VI 


We have seen how love as a response to personal hate helps 
us in our own adjustment to human society, love gives us the 
238 


< 
ree 


LOVE IN THE NEW DAY [IX-m] 


great power of forgiveness which is a blessing to other lives, 
and love as a factor in problems between nations serves as. 
the only sure road out of the morass and swamps of interna- 
tional war. The philosophy of love has, also, deeper implica- 
tions. Love is the most complete and devastating answer to 
the disgusting animalism and gross materiahsm of many 
modern scientists. 

As an aftermath of the wide scientific researches of modern 
times, there has grown up the mechanistic theory that the 
higher categories—life, mind, and God—are not intrinsic to 
reality. This mechanistic interpretation of life presents the 
cosmos as an utterly unconscious machine of ruthless, pur- 
poseless force—an inexorable, tragic, capricious physico- 
chemical clutter of meaningless atoms. The whole universe,. 
from star-dust to Christ-heart, is just a purposeless heap of 
unconscious matter, in which man is as insignificant as an 
amoeba, a “bag of salts and a pail of water.” And the ad- 
jective that describes most perfectly the whole existence is 
“accidental.” Light, stars, flowers, solar systems, intellect, 
poetry, happiness, trees, all are the result of accident! The 
God of the mechanists is spelled “chance’’! 

Can the whole of life, the actual sum total of existence be 
compassed and tabulated on the neat, red-dotted graph charts 
of a Jacques Loeb or a W. J. V. Osterhout? Can we pour 
every drop of the experience of life into the shallow vessels 
of the quantitative work of physicists, chemists, and biologists ? 
The rea! scientists (by this we mean impartial observers who 
face all the facts), even against their will, admit that when 
the telescope of curiosity is turned to the wider field of real- 
ity and when the miscroscope of detection is trained to the 
deeper, underlying centers of life-structure, qualitative as 
well as quantitative facts appear. The spiritual seeing ap- 
paratus, of course, in many material-minded men is so dulled 
to the point of atrophy that they no longer see the wonder 
in. the world; the real scientists are the see-ers like Bliss 
Carman: 


“Over the shoulders and slopes of the dune 

I saw the white daisies go down to the sea, 

A host in the sunshine, an army in June, 

The people God sends us to set our heart free. 
239 





[IX-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE es 


“The bobolinks rallied them up from the dell, 
The orioles whistled them out of the wood; : 
And all of their singing was, ‘Earth, it is well!’ : 
And all of their dancing was, ‘Life, thou art good!” 4 

a 
2 


In our keenest hours, when we are most truly ourselves 
physically, mentally, and spiritually, no cynical, pessimistic, 

dry-as-desert mechanism can, for one moment, satisfy us as 

truth. For when man once remorselessly fronts the ultimate 
meaning of a mechanistic philosophy, honestly tabulates the — 
real issues of such thinking, there comes over him the same — 
feeling as that which Dreiser experienced after spending a ~ 
while amidst the hissings and poundings of the engine room 
of a transatlantic liner: “I shouldn’t like that, I think . 

life is better than rigidity and fixed motion, I hope. I trust 
the universe is not mechanical . . . we know it is beautiful. 
It must be so!” While one, in the solitude and vastness of 
our world, needs must feel a certain awe, it is an awe tinged 
with radiant faith, an indomitable knowledge based upon actual — 
experience, like that of Alfred Noyes: 


“Nor shall these 

Appal me with immensity ; 

I know they carry one heart of flame 
More precious than the sun!” 


- 


ral? is 4ys 
jan eS ee, fel ' 
Re ea ee MeN UT PL A AT folie oh) all Cy he 


Ag 


ts 


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xt ae 

y V th t 
Fi ee et sd bea 

i a fy i Py i wet 


wi? 
rue 


Man is not a hopeless creature of accidental atoms caught 
in the horrible, impersonal, grinding cruelty of a hell-ma- — 
chine! Man is a living, thinking, loving expression of the In- 
finite Mind, Heart, and Body of a purposeful Creator who is 
the God of Love! “There is none like unto the God who — 
rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency in _ 
the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath ag ; 
the everlasting arms!” Deut. 33 :26-27.) 3 


* 
Py 
ry 





“In heaven’s starred pavement at the midnight hour, 
In roseate hues that come at morning dawn, 
In the bright bow athwart the falling shower, 
In woods and waters, hills and velvet lawn, 
One truth is written, all conspire to prove, 
What grace of old revealed, that ‘God is Love’! ee 
240 


eee ne Pee) FY os 


LOVE IN. THE NEW DAY {[I1X-m] 
Vil 


The perfection of love is revealed in God, says Jesus. His 
rain and sunshine, his fresh air and cool water, his flowers 
and trees are for all. He is not partial, he does not dis- 
criminate, he is no respecter of persons. His bestowal is 
free, without money and without price, upon the just and 
upon the unjust alike. Just here Jesus gives us a pretty hard 
spiritual job. When he says: “Be ye therefore perfect as 
your Father in heaven!” he means this: If you want to be 
counted brothers and sisters of mine and children of the 
highest, you must cultivate that perfection which was in me 
and which is the most notable characteristic of God, namely, 
the perfection of love. You can be a son of the devil by 
hating. But to be kith and kin of God, that means love. “For 
God is Love; and every one that loveth is born of God, and 
knoweth God. . . . If a man say, I love God, and hateth his 
brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom 
he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” 
(1 John 4: 7, 8, 20.) 

Man cannot attain the perfection of omnipotent mind, nor 
can he encompass the experiences of a cosmic soul, but in 
his own heart he ran have the same perfect quality of cosmic 
love. In this it is fair for Jesus to expect of us perfection 
like unto that of the great Father himself! And this per- 
fect love of the Father welling up in imperfect men is his 
truest token of divine sonship, his veritable birthmark as a 
son of God. It is the badge and bond of that wide fraternity 
of humankind which passes all barriers of religion or race 


or thought to make of mortals, in spite of artificial divisions, 


truly one great unity. “Men are tattooed with their special 
beliefs,” said Oliver Wendell Holmes, “like so many South 
Sea Islanders; -but a real human heart with divine love in 
it beats with the same glow under all the patterns of all 
earth’s thousand tribes!” Whether in Jew, Japanese, or Ger- 
man, whether in Pole, Portuguese, or Persian, Egyptian, 
Hindu, or Korean, Armenian, Russian, or American, Turk, 


Frenchman, or Filipino, Italian, Englishman, or Norwegian, 


Swede, Siamese, or South American, Spaniard, African, or 


_ Austrian, no matter of what tribe or color or race, wherever 


241 


[IX-m] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE eh 


we see this revealing quality of true love we know we see 
a child of God! . ' 

This gentle, magnanimous quality of human love which one 
finds universally around the world in all classes and among 
all creeds is proof of the towering fact that often our be- 
having is not consistent with our believing. There are Funda- 
mentalists who belie their hard and fast thinking about God 
and his relation to man by living lives of radiant and con- 
secrated and broadminded love like Charles R. Erdman, 
Robert E. Speer, and Robert P. Wilder. And there are 
atheistic-leaning scientists whose love-filled lives are clear 
revealings of the fact that there are realities in this world 
better than the inexorable mechanics to which their thinking 
would reduce the universe. No one can meet Fernald of 
Harvard, Davenport of Cold Spring Harbor, J. Ben Hill of 
Penn State College, and J. C. Arthur of Purdue. without 
realizing that here in these gentle, humble, humane lives dwells 
the God of very God im which these men themselves will not 
believe! What De Kruif says of Jacques Loeb might be said 
of any number of research-devoted thinkers: “Strangest of 
all things about him, his heart belied the cold deterministic 
faiths that nature put into his head. Despite this tongue of 
his, that was sometimes a rapier and at others a dreadful 
bludgeon, Loeb face to face with his victims was gentle and 
so kind and generous!” 

All of which reminds me that a poem, clipped from a local 
news-sheet, and brought to me by a sweet and saintly old 
lady, describes those, who, whether believing in God or not, 
knowing of Christ or not, are revealing him in every moment 
of their loving response to the experience we call living: 


“A son of God, and, like his brother, Christ, 
A messenger of love, good-will and peace— 
To those who sit in darkness bringing light, 
To those in sorrow, comfort. With the glad 
Does he rejoice, and weeps with those who weep— 
A man of God—a man of men—humane, 
Unselfish, patient, tender, tolerant, wise; 

Of talents humble, but of virtue, proud; 

Gentle with sinners; steadfast against sin; 

Teaching by word and deed that God is love, 
242 


LOVE IN THE.NEW DAY [1X-m] 


And life is good, and immortality 
Is sure to noble living. For this man, 
Made in thine image, we do thank Thee, God!” 


Men often say Jesus’ message is not applicable in the twen- 
tieth century because he said nothing definite about our very 
real problems: the family, modern economic and industrial 
conditions, commercial issues, art, democratic government, the 
new education, modern science, politics, music, and modern 
amusements and recreation. These are the great areas of 
life in which we live and move and have our being; some 
think the thought of Jesus does not touch them. Suppose, 
however, that the supreme need of human society is a love 
like Jesus had! Suppose he lived his life with the deep con- 
viction that when men learned that the Heart of the World 
was love and when they lived with that holy love of the 
Father in their own hearts and homes and businesses all their 
problems would be solved! “Think what it would mean,” 
says Henry Kingman, “to our generation, struggling des- 
perately in the world-wide network of selfish ‘interests, to 
catch the vision of this reality!” The truth is that Jesus 
gave us the one elemental rule that is indispensable in any 
realm of life: the law of love! Christianity as a law of love 
can never be destroyed. No philosophy, no skepticism, no 
mechanistic science can ever overthrow that. But we have 
been afraid of the dynamic of love in Christ; we have not 
had enough faith in it; we have not given it enough practice. 
For love as yet has little to do in the organization of our 
social order. “The power of love,” says Thoreau, “has been 
‘but meanly and sparingly applied; it has patented only such 
machines as the almshouse, the hospital, and the Bible 
Society, while its infinite wind is still blowing, and blowing 
down those very structures, too, from time to time!” 

We must bring the love of the humble, patient, forgiving 
Christ back into history. We must trust in no religion, how- 
ever holy and however sacrosanct, which does not base its 
creative power upon the simple, beautiful law of love. We 
must close the chasms which creed and class, competition and 
selfishness, blood and belief have made, with the binding 
affection which shines from the life of the Master. Deep 
down in our heart of hearts we know that the great inherit- 


243 


[IX-q] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


ance of the ages is this sublime human sympathy, affection, 


and love. We know that to be enemies, classes, guardians of 


selfish interests, to resort to strife over pieces of paper and 


disks of gold is to destroy our most precious birthright. But 
to be comrades, friends, lovers—that is to rise to our noblest 
destiny, that is to fulfill God’s best hopes for his children! 


O God, our Father, deliver us, we pray, from the tragic 
folly and chaos of loveless living! Grant us insight to under- 
stand, patience to forgive, kindness to bless, and courage to 
pray for those who call themselves our enemies. May we 
love all with the love wherewith Thou hast loved us. By our 
undying efforts prepare, we beseech Thee, a highway of 


mutual love along which the confused nations may travel to 
a kingdom of concord and peace. Hear us for the sake of © 


him who loved us and gave his whole self for us. Amen. 


LIFE QUESTIONS 


1. Why is the law of love placed at the climax of the new 
law of Jesus as given in five restatements of the older 
idealism? 

2. Could love be evolved as a reality in our world if no 
such thing as love is involved in the originating Force of all 
that exists? 

3. What difference does it make whether the cosmos is 


controlled by a kind Father or the blind accident of impersonal 


Nature? To love men as God loves them means what in 
terms of everyday personal living? 


, hl 


4. “Forgive! Fiddlesticks! This man has injured me be- _ 


yond all forgiveness. So long as I breathe I will hate and 
loathe and despise him!” What will you say to this person in 
attempting to change the viewpoint to that of. Christ? 


5. “Love these foreigners? These dirty beggars of the = 
street? Well, I should say not! I love my own family, and — 


that is as far as my duty goes.” Is it possible that such 
duty is enough in the eyes of Christ? 

6. “We believe that it is Jesus Christ, the Son of the 
Eternal Father and the Son of the Virgin ‘Mary, who, in a 
short while, when the little bell tinkles, will come down from 


244 : 


a“, 


a. 


4 Co at; 
gel ae ES et 


ga tf 
i Te 


sith 


LOVE tN THE NEW DAY [1X-s] 


Heaven at the wonder-working words of the consecrating 
prelate.” (Cardinal Mundelein. ) 

Can Jesus reform men’s hearts and men’s society through 
magical rites in his name or through personalities love- 
imbued in his spirit? 

7, “A loving heart will hit upon the method needed in a 
particular case.” (T. R. Glover.) How far will this go 
in solving life’s social needs? How far will prepared intel- 
ligence be necessary to supplement “a loving heart’? 

8 Does war do any good? What are its root causes? 
- Judge of the relative value of the following suggestions for 
the elimination of war: outlawry of war, League of Nations, 
World Court, Disarmament, the reign of law, mutual racial 
understanding through education, cultivation of the will for 
peace through religion, Christlike good-will among men. 

9. “The universe is great and splendid beyond our imagina- 
tions. Let us not take a pitiful, mean outlook. Nothing is 
too great or too good to be true.” (Sir Oliver Lodge.) Do 
you agree? Why are biologists, chemists, physicists usually 
likely to have a pessimistic view of the universe? 

to. “The capital of a Church is a faith that works by 
love, because it is a faith in love.” (P. T. Forsyth.) Has 
the Church really given large enough room in its creed for 
love? Why do not church-folk live the love of Jesus more? 


CONCERNING THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 


Time—Spring of 27 A.D. 

Place—A small hill west of the sea of Galilee, probably lo- 
cated between Magdala and Capernaum. 

Speaker—Jesus Christ, the Prophet of Nazareth. 

Hearers—A multitude of people, chiefly folks from Galilee, 
but also many from more remote points of Palestine: 
poor and rich, women and children, soldiers, artisans and 
laborers, shepherds, lawyers and priests, scribes, lepers, 
blind and outcasts. 

When recorded—27.  .D., notes taken down by the disciple 

Matthew. 
50 AD. records of Jesus’ principal dis- 
courses assembled in a papyrus roll, 


245 


[IX-s] THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


called the Logia, by the disciple | 
Matthew. : 

75 A.D. the gospel of Matthew written by 
an unknown scribe, using the Logia 
and the gospel of Mark as the chief 
sources. 

397. A.D., the Council of Carthage adopts 
the complete canon of the New Tes- 
tament as we now know it. 

I61I A.pD., the Authorized Version of the 
Bible completed in translation in 
English and published. 

Where recorded—The gospel of Matthew, chapters 5, 6, and 7. 

The passage in Luke 6: 20-49 is not the 

same sermon: 

(1) Luke records a different place: 

“He came down and stood in a 
plain.” 

(2) Luke records a different time: 

Jesus had prayed on the mountain 
during the night, had chosen the 
twelve early in the morning, and in 
the afternoon had come down from 
the mountain to preach again. 

(3) Luke’s record is different: 

‘Matthew has 111 verses, Luke only 
30; 10 of Luke’s verses are not in 
Matthew; less than one-fifth of 
Matthew’s sermon is found in Luke. 

(4) A great personality with a vital mes- 
sage often repeats himself. Doesn’t 
this explain the similarity of 
Luke’s sermon? 

Is it authentic?—The Sermon on the Mount is not a fic- 
titious concoction of stray phrases of 
Jesus, but a marvelously accurate outline 
of a sermon actually preached: 

(1) Matthew, the tax-collector, could 
write. The first time we see him 
he is at the customs desk, making 
notations. As a new disciple he 

246 . 


~ CONCERNING THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT [IX-s] 


was deeply impressed by the Sermon 
on the Mount. Its cutting truth 
left a deep furrow in his memory. 
Would it not be. natural for him 
also to use the writing materials he 
carried with him for a general out- 
line of the sermon? 

(2) Jesus spoke in Aramaic, a Hebrew 
dialect.. In all ancient literature we 
have but one statement that an eye- 
witness wrote Jesus’ words in the 
actual language of the Master. In 
the third book of the historian 
Eusebius, the thirty-ninth chapter, 
we find the statement of a reporter, 
Papias by name: “Matthew wrote 
down (stenographically) the words 
of Jesus (Logia) in the Hebrew 
dialect.” 

(3) The editor of our gospel of Matthew 
is unknown. He based his story of 
the life and message of Jesus upon 

~ the following: 

a Greek manuscript of the gospel of 
Mark 

a Greek translation of the Aramaic 
Logia 

a Greek translation of Old Testa- 
ment prophecies £4 

a series of documents of stories and 
sayings common to Luke and 
Matthew, called, for lack of 
knowledge, Q1,°Q2, and Q3 

a document of Palestinian traditions 
about the birth and infancy of 
Jesus, and parts of the Galilean 
ministry 

(4) The priceless document, the Aramaic 
Logia, containing the eye-witness 
records of the disciple Matthew, is 
now lost. But at least two-fifths of 


247 


[IX-s] 


THE MASTER’S MESSAGE 


(6) One can read the Sermon on the 


(7) The more one gets under the Ser- 


our gospel Matthew is derived from 
this most precious of all the records 
of the life of our Lord. Scholars 
agree that the Sermon on the Mount 
is taken from the Logia. There are 
five discourses which were probably 
incorporated in the gospel by the 
editor just as he found them in the 
Logia. We find them ending with 
an identical formula: 7:28, 11:1, 
13:53, 19: I,.and 26: I. 


(5) Scholars agree that the text of the 


Sermon on the Mount has been less 
tampered with than any other pas- 
sage in the Bible. It is almost cer- 
tain that we have a practically pure 
copy of the original Logian record, 
written by Matthew. This is a 
wonderful fact, when we consider 
that it has been passed down to us 
through more than nineteen cen- 
turies. 


Mount aloud in less than eight 
minutes. It is almost certain that 
Jesus took longer than this to speak 

to the people, possibly preaching ~ 
over an hour. What we have then 
is a brief summary of the original 
message. In the face of this fact 
the theory that the Sermon is a 
compilation of many different dis- — 
courses appears ridiculous. 


mon’s surface the more one feels 
the strong current of a great unity. 
On the basis of guesswork some 
scholars have attempted to pick out 
parts as extraneous and ungenuine. 
A little careful study will reveal 
that this dismembers a body of x 

248 3 





CONCERNING THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT [IX-s] 


profoundly unified thought. The 
condensation process has eliminated 
transitional details, so that the 
golden thread of continuity in pur- 
pose and idea is only discovered 
when the Sermon is explored in- 
tensely as a whole. 

(8) The internal evidence is almost con- 
clusive. The words of Jesus dis- 
close a definite situation: 

5: 3-16—the ordination of new fol- 

lowers who have very recently come 

to the Master. 

5: 17-48, 6:1-18—the reply to the 
hostile leaders of the current re- 
ligion. 

6: 24-34——the frank condemnation of 
a mammon-controlled church and 
state. 

7:1-6—an answer to some bitter 
criticisms recently received. 

7:7-27—four great principles of 
reform: 

(a) for the new followers. 
(b) for the sick and needy. 
(c) for the scribes. 
(d) for the Pharisees. 
Is the Sermon applicable now?—The Sermon on the Mount is 
a summary of moral and spiritual truth which cannot 
_change from century to century. Jesus is not concerned 
___ with the details of personal or social life. He is con- 
- cerned with the setting forth of vital principles of living, 
laws for the governing of human conduct no matter when 
‘or where. This message of the ‘Master contains the spir- 
itual energies and dynamics for the building of a new and 
better day in the world. -It is teaching for etermty, not 
because of any superimposed ecclesiastical authority, but 
because these words incarnate his own spirit, which must 
rest in every breast before the new society shall come! 


—_— 





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